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)
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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.



Trump and Putin Set for 'Very Critical' Ukraine Call

FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
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Trump and Putin Set for 'Very Critical' Ukraine Call

FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -
FILED - 14 June 2019, Japan, Osaka: US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting on the sidelines of the 2019 G20 summit. Photo: White House/dpa -

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to speak by phone on Tuesday in a potentially crucial step toward halting the war in Ukraine, over three years into Moscow's invasion.

Both sides have expressed optimism about recent talks between Washington and Moscow but have agreed that only a top-level call could resolve the toughest sticking points on a 30-day truce, AFP reported.

Ukraine has agreed to the ceasefire -- yet both Kyiv and European capitals are skeptical that Putin may be stalling, and wonder whether Trump is willing to use leverage against a leader with whom he seems intent on restoring ties.

"We're going to have a very important call," Trump told reporters on Monday. "We're getting down to a very critical stage."

Trump added later on his Truth Social network that "many elements of a final agreement have been agreed to, but much remains.

"I look very much forward to the call with President Putin," he said.

Putin said last week he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire but warned he had "serious questions" about how it would be implemented that he wanted to discuss with Trump.

With Moscow occupying swathes of southern and eastern Ukraine, US officials have made clear that Ukraine would likely have to cede territory in any deal.

Trump said on Sunday that he and Putin would discuss "dividing up certain assets" including land and power plants: an apparent reference to the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in south Ukraine, Europe's largest.

US-Ukraine split

Trump's return to the White House has seen a total upending of US policy on Ukraine.

The US president stunned the world when he announced last month that he had spoken to Putin, in a call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader as long as his forces keep up their Ukraine invasion.

He has since said that he has spoken "numerous times" to the Russian leader, for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration in the past, though none was officially announced.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held a three-hour meeting with Putin last Thursday in Moscow to present the details of the joint ceasefire plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities.

But as Washington's relations with Moscow have thawed, its ties with Ukraine have become far more complicated.

Trump had a televised shouting match with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28 which led to the United States temporarily suspending its billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv.

Zelensky later relented and agreed to both the ceasefire plan and a deal to give the United States preferential access to Ukraine's rare earth mineral deposits.

'Been through hell'

But Zelensky has still reacted with anger to Putin's recent statements, accusing him of wanting to prolong the fighting to improve Moscow's position on the battlefield.

Russia has been pressing ahead in several areas of the frontline for over a year.

Moscow has in particular boasted in recent days about ousting Ukrainian troops from Russia's western Kursk region -- which had been a major bargaining chip for Kyiv.

Concerns have mounted among Western allies that Trump is giving too much away to Putin without demanding any concessions from the wily Russian leader.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the bloodshed whatever it takes -- but he is also keen to live up to his 2024 election campaign pledge that he would end the fighting quickly.

The president said last week that he could hit Russia with "devastating" economic sanctions if necessary but that he hoped he would not need to and that Putin would reach a deal.

The US president has meanwhile repeatedly boasted of a bond with Putin.

During the Zelensky row, Trump raged that "Putin went through a hell of a lot with me," referring to the investigation during his first term into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow.