New S. Korea-U.S. nuclear energy pact to come into force

A new civil nuclear energy pact between South Korea and the United States will come into force Wednesday evening, Seoul's foreign ministry said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se and U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert will meet at 6 p.m. local time (0900 GMT) in the headquarters of the foreign ministry to exchange protocols on the revised pact for bilateral civil nuclear energy cooperation.

With the exchange of protocols, the revised accord will come into force.

The two countries initialed the revised pact on April 22 after four and a half years of negotiations to update the 42-year-old agreement.

South Korea, which generates about one quarter of its electricity with nuclear reactors and exports nuclear power plant equipment and parts, has desired to develop reprocessing, or at least pyro-processing, capabilities.

The United States has been worried that permitting South Korea to enrich uranium and reprocess spent fuel could make it difficult to deter other countries from seeking such technologies.

Under the revision, South Korea would be allowed to continue pyro-processing research without consent from the U.S. The pyro-processing is seen as having less of proliferation risk as it cannot extract weapons-grade plutonium when reprocessing spent fuel.

South Korea will also be allowed to slightly enrich uranium under the updated accord. Less than 20 percent of the enrichment will be possible if the two countries agree to it through consultations at the standing committee co-chaired by U.S. deputy secretary of energy and South Korean vice foreign minister. Enditem