US Designated South Korea a 'Sensitive' Country amid Nuclear Concerns

A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds photos during a rally to oppose his impeachment in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 15, 2025. The letters read "Dismiss impeachment." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds photos during a rally to oppose his impeachment in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 15, 2025. The letters read "Dismiss impeachment." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
TT

US Designated South Korea a 'Sensitive' Country amid Nuclear Concerns

A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds photos during a rally to oppose his impeachment in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 15, 2025. The letters read "Dismiss impeachment." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A supporter of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol holds photos during a rally to oppose his impeachment in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 15, 2025. The letters read "Dismiss impeachment." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The US Department of Energy has designated ally South Korea a "sensitive" country, a spokesperson said on Friday, after the South Korean president briefly imposed martial law and amid talk of Seoul potentially developing nuclear weapons.
The administration of then-President Joe Biden put South Korea on the lowest tier of the Sensitive and Other Designated Countries List in January shortly before Biden left office, the DOE said in a written response to Reuters queries.
The department did not explain why the Asian nation was added to the list and did not indicate that President Donald Trump was inclined to reverse the measure. The spokesperson said Seoul faces no new restrictions on bilateral cooperation in science and technology.
The designation will go into effect on April 15, media reports said, according to Reuters.
South Korea's foreign ministry said the government was taking the matter seriously and in close communication with Washington.
"We will actively negotiate to ensure that there is no negative impact on energy, science and technology cooperation between South Korea and the United States," the ministry said in a statement.
The DOE list of sensitive countries includes China, Taiwan, Israel, Russia, Iran and North Korea, with Tehran and Pyongyang designated as "terrorist", according to a 2017 document posted on the department's website.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and then-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun are among officials who raised the prospect that Seoul would be forced to pursue nuclear weapons amid fears over Pyongyang's weapons program and concerns about the US alliance.
Yoon and Kim have been indicted on charges of insurrection over Yoon's six-hour declaration of martial law in December. Yoon was impeached and his presidential powers suspended while a court decides whether to remove him from office.
Yoon backed off rhetoric about a nuclear weapons program after negotiating with Biden a 2023 agreement under which Washington is to give Seoul more insight into US planning to deter and respond to a nuclear incident in the region. In return, Seoul renewed a pledge not to pursue a nuclear bomb of its own and said it would abide by the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which it has signed.
That, however, has not been enough to ease doubts over US defense commitments that have fueled calls for a South Korean nuclear arsenal.
Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul said last month that nuclear weapons were not "off the table", though it was premature to talk about such a plan.
"Given that international situations are developing in unpredictable directions, this is a principled response that we must prepare for all possible scenarios," Cho told a parliamentary hearing.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the nonprofit Arms Control Association, said that in light of such "provocative" statements, South Korea is a proliferation risk and the DOE was prudent to put the country on its list.
"Listing the ROK as a proliferation-sensitive country should rule out any chance of a South Korean request for US approval to enrich uranium and reprocessing spent fuel... to produce nuclear weapons," Kimball said, citing the country's formal name, the Republic of Korea.
The handling of the designation raised concerns in Seoul. Cho told parliament on Tuesday that his ministry had had no formal communication from the Biden administration and only heard about the possible designation from an informal tip-off.
Countries may appear on the Energy Department's list for reasons of national security, nuclear nonproliferation or support for terrorism, though inclusion does not necessarily indicate an adversarial relationship with the United States.
"Currently there are no new restrictions on bilateral science and technology cooperation with the ROK," the DOE said. "The Energy Department looks forward to collaborating with the ROK to advance our mutual interests."
Though the designation does not prohibit scientific or technical cooperation, visits to the listed countries and cooperation undergo an internal review beforehand, the department said.



Ukrainian Official Says Major Prisoner Swap with Russia is Underway

Family members of Ukrainian prisoners hold banners and photos of servicemen in captivity ahead of an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Family members of Ukrainian prisoners hold banners and photos of servicemen in captivity ahead of an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
TT

Ukrainian Official Says Major Prisoner Swap with Russia is Underway

Family members of Ukrainian prisoners hold banners and photos of servicemen in captivity ahead of an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Family members of Ukrainian prisoners hold banners and photos of servicemen in captivity ahead of an exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, in Chernyhiv region, Ukraine, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

An exchange of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine from their 3-year-old war was underway Friday, a senior Ukrainian official said, in one of the few signs of progress in international efforts to halt the fighting.

The swap was not yet finished, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Moscow did not immediately confirm the exchange was underway.

Ukraine and Russia agreed to the exchange of 1,000 prisoners from each side a week ago in Turkey in their first direct peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of its neighbor. That meeting lasted only two hours and brought no breakthrough in international diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting, The AP news reported.

The Ukrainian comment Friday came after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine had carried out a large exchange of prisoners.

“A major prisoners swap was just completed between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump said on the Truth Social platform. He said it would “go into effect shortly,” although it was not clear what that meant.

“This could lead to something big???” Trump added in his post, apparently referring to international diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting.

White House and National Security Council officials did not immediately respond to requests for further details.

After the May 16 talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the prisoner swap a “confidence-building measure” and said the parties had agreed in principle to meet again.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that there has been no agreement yet on the venue for the next round of talks as diplomatic maneuvering continued.

European leaders have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he tries to press his larger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.

The Istanbul meeting revealed both sides clearly remained far apart on key conditions for ending the fighting. One such condition for Ukraine, backed by its Western allies, is a temporary ceasefire as a first step toward a peaceful settlement.

The Kremlin has pushed back on a temporary halt to hostilities, and Putin has said any such truce must come with a freeze on Western arms supplies to Ukraine and an end to Ukraine’s mobilization drive.

A senior Ukrainian official said that in Istanbul, Russia had introduced new, “unacceptable demands” to withdraw Ukrainian forces from huge swaths of territory. The official, who was not authorized to make official statements, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. The proposal had not been previously discussed, the official said.

Putin has long demanded that Ukraine withdraw its troops from the four regions that Russia annexed in September 2022 but never fully occupied as a key condition for a peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that if Russia continues to reject a ceasefire and make “unrealistic demands,” it will signal deliberate efforts to prolong the war — a move that should bring tougher international sanctions.