President Lee Jae Myung said Wednesday that US President Donald Trump proposed the two countries form a 5:5 partnership to achieve South Korea's aim of enriching uranium and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel on its soil.
Lee disclosed what he said was Trump's proposal at a recent summit meeting during a press conference with the foreign press that marked one year since former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed imposition of martial law.
"In the end, we agreed to partner," Lee said, adding that Trump instructed US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to work out the details.
Under an agreement reached at the Lee-Trump summit in Gyeongju in October, the allies have been negotiating ways to expand Seoul's rights to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for peaceful use.
Currently, South Korea is largely banned from enriching its own uranium under a bilateral nuclear accord, leaving the country to import all of its low-enriched uranium.
Lee recounted that during their meeting, Trump asked where South Korea was importing its enriched uranium from and that he responded 30 percent of its imports was coming from Russia.
Trump then noted South Korea would make a lot of profit if it produced its own enriched uranium and proposed the partnership, Lee said.
Earlier during the press conference, Lee said that having secured US approval for nuclear-powered submarines was the major achievement of his two recent summit talks with Trump.
"It was a highly beneficial outcome for us, from the viewpoint of strategic flexibility and autonomy," he said, expressing hopes that building a nuclear-powered submarine could take place in South Korea rather than in the US, considering various economic and security factors.
"I know President Trump has suggested building them at the Philadelphia shipyard, but from our perspective, it is realistically very difficult," he said.
Following his summit with Lee in South Korea's Gyeongju during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, Trump said he had given approval to Seoul to build nuclear-powered submarines and that they will be built in the Philly shipyard run by South Korea's Hanwha Ocean.
"It is desirable that they are produced domestically, in terms of military security and from an economic perspective," Lee said.
He firmly dismissed concerns that Seoul's push for nuclear-powered submarines would undermine the international nonproliferation regime -- to which it is a party -- stressing that South Korea completely stands by its nonproliferation obligations.
"It is not as if a nuclear submarine has detonators or nuclear bombs in it," he said, adding that reprocessing spent fuel is not directly related to nuclear proliferation.
"Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is a grand principle on which both Koreas have agreed. (A nuclear buildup) is a senseless move. The US would never approve it, and we would end up with massive economic sanctions and become like North Korea. Do you think we could put up with that?" he said.
On Seoul's push for dialogue with North Korea, Lee said that the stalled inter-Korean ties should not block efforts to resume talks between Washington and Pyongyang, saying the US "can do a lot" to make it happen.
"North Korea has outrightly rejected our calls for talks, but there are many things that the US can do," he said. "North Korea sees the US, not South Korea, as the party that can provide security guarantees for its regime."
Lee said he is ready to help create conditions or provide "strategic leverages" to restart talks, including scaling down joint military drills with the US
"We will do our best to create objective conditions so that communication and cooperation can occur at any time. (Scaling down) the South Korea-US joint military exercises are also part of that," he said.
Lee, a liberal president, has vowed to act as a "pacemaker" to help facilitate dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang and called for Trump to be a "peacemaker" through resuming talks with the North's leader Kim Jong-un.
Asked if he has considered apologizing to North Korea for the alleged sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by former President Yoon Suk Yeol's government, Lee said he has thought about it but has refrained from doing so, out of concern that it could trigger an ideological clash at home.
"I have thought that perhaps I should apologize, but I haven't dared to say it because my concern is that it might be used as a tool for so-called pro-North labeling or trigger an ideological confrontation," he said.
"I don't know how you could see into my mind and ask such a question. You must have read my thoughts," Lee said, declining to elaborate further.
In a recent social media posting, Lee claimed that "a war nearly broke out" because the Yoon government tried to use martial law as a pretext to start a war with the North and the South's military sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets first before the North sent theirs into the South.
Wednesday's press event was held as part of commemorations for the one-year anniversary of the failed Dec. 3 martial law imposition by Yoon.
On rising tensions between China and Japan, Lee said South Korea could play a mediating role, where possible, to help ease the row, emphasizing that South Korea has no intention to take sides with either of the two.
"Taking sides would only escalate the conflict. This applies to both personal relationships and international relations. Rather than taking sides, it's better to seek ways to coexist," Lee said.
"Where possible, it is desirable to minimize the conflict and play a role in mediating and coordinating," he said.
Regarding China, Lee said the two countries share a relationship that "cannot be separated," in terms of geography, the economy, history and socio-cultural aspects, voicing hope to visit Beijing soon.
"Stable management (of bilateral ties with China) is crucial," he said. "I hope to visit China at an early date and hold summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping for broad discussions," he said.
"I believe we should also discuss cooperation for security in Northeast Asia," Lee added.
Although bilateral relations with Japan have improved in recent years, history issues stemming from the time of Japan's colonial rule of Korea remain an "emotional" issue affecting the peoples of both countries, Lee said.
"But we should not need to give up on other areas because of this issue. We can still pursue exchanges and cooperation in the economy, security, culture and between our peoples," he said.
Asked whether Russia could help persuade North Korea to return to dialogue, Lee said its role would be very limited due to its war of aggression against Ukraine. (Yonhap)
