South Korea, US hail nuclear cooperation talks as success

By Chang Dong-woo and Song Sang-ho

SEOUL/WASHINGTON, June 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday assessed this week's nuclear cooperation consultations with the United States as a "success," as the two countries launched discussions to implement a set of security agreements reached by their leaders last year.

The two sides held the meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Seoul to discuss cooperation on South Korea's push to build nuclear-powered submarines and secure civil uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing capabilities.

South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker attended the meeting, along with interagency representatives from the countries, including those from Seoul's presidential National Security Office and the White House National Security Council.

The Seoul foreign ministry assessed this week's consultations as a success.

"The meeting proceeded in an excellent atmosphere, and productive and substantive discussions took place," ministry spokesperson Park Il said at a regular press briefing.

Park added both sides agreed to cooperate to derive substantive outcomes as soon as possible, decided to establish a framework to review achievements throughout the year and agreed to accelerate future consultations.

The State Department said Wednesday (U.S. time) that the two sides agreed to pursue "tangible" outcomes from their nuclear cooperation initiatives.

"Both sides committed to work toward delivering tangible outcomes as quickly as possible to establish milestones for reviewing progress throughout the year and to accelerate future consultations," the department said in a media note.

The meeting was held to make progress on the nuclear cooperation initiatives included in bilateral agreements on security, trade and investment adopted after a summit between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump in late October.

The U.S. under secretary also shared a similar assessment on social media.

"Our initial discussions on U.S.-ROK nuclear cooperation were a success and set the stage for continued technical conversations," Hooker wrote on social media. The ROK is short for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

The under secretary added she discussed other issues as well, including ensuring the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, strengthening critical supply chains and countering regional threats.