South Korea delays US investment announcement amid last-minute disputes over nuclear plants, upfront cash

South Korea has delayed a National Assembly briefing on its investment negotiations with the United States, as the two sides continue to wrangle over last-minute sticking points including large-scale nuclear power plants and an upfront cash transfer of around $10 billion.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy asked the Assembly's trade and industry committee and its fiscal and economic planning committee on Wednesday to postpone a briefing scheduled for that day, Yonhap reported Thursday. The delay is expected to push back the signing of a memorandum of understanding and the announcement of the first project under a $200 billion investment package — originally anticipated as early as Friday — to a later date.

"The ministry was to brief the Assembly before the final MOU was concluded, but since negotiations have not yet wrapped up, the briefing was pushed back," a ruling party official said. "The current talk is that the Assembly briefing will be held Tuesday, though it could be moved up to Monday depending on how quickly the negotiations progress."

Disagreements over nuclear energy have been cited as a key reason for the holdup. South Korea and the United States had been working out an arrangement under which six of eight large reactors to be built in the US would use Westinghouse's AP1000 model, with the remaining two using South Korea's domestically developed APR1400.

The US government and Westinghouse have balked at allowing the Korean-designed APR1400 to be built on American soil, analysts said, with Washington wary that the AP1000 — its flagship model — could lose ground in its home market.

The nuclear issue is further entangled with questions over equity stakes and voting rights in Westinghouse. South Korea has sought a stake of around 20 percent along with board representation and substantive voting rights, aiming to improve on the unfavorable terms it accepted when it won the Czech Republic nuclear power plant contract and to sharpen its competitiveness in future overseas bids.

The United States, however, has held firm on offering only a minority stake of 5 to 10 percent with no voting rights. On top of that, investment in pyroprocessing — a dry reprocessing technology for spent nuclear fuel — has emerged as a new variable in the talks.

Pyroprocessing treats spent nuclear fuel through electrochemical reactions in molten salt at 500 to 650 degrees Celsius to recover uranium and transuranic elements. The US had accumulated more than 95,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel as of last year.

For Seoul, however, committing additional funds to the pyroprocessing project risks pushing the total US investment above the $200 billion ceiling agreed upon in last year's tariff negotiations, a prospect the government is weighing carefully.

Disagreements over the size of the first cash transfer have also drawn fire. Reports emerged that the US side demanded South Korea remit nearly half of the annual investment ceiling — around $10 billion — by year's end, a condition that has stalled the final agreement.

The government had originally been considering sending more than $2.2 billion to the US as the first installment this month, with annual investment of up to $20 billion to follow from next year onward.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said the postponement of the announcement did not stem from disagreements between the two countries. "My understanding is that this is less about differences between South Korea and the United States and more about making sure our domestic procedural steps are properly in order," she said.