“Prospects for the Renewal of the U.S.-ROK Nuclear Cooperation Agreement”

摘要

As the current U.S.-ROK nuclear energy cooperation agreement nears its expiration, it isimportant for nuclear energy experts, defense and security experts, and nonproliferation expertsalike to consider the prospects for the agreement’s renewal. South Korea is a crucial U.S. ally inEast Asia, and the terms of this important cooperation agreement have the potential to defineaspects of U.S. nonproliferation policy in East Asia for decades. This paper considers thepolitical conditions for renewal in both the United States and South Korea, the nonproliferationconsiderations of the South Korean request for pyroprocessing, and the significance of thisparticular nuclear cooperation agreement as a precedent for future agreements and for U.S-ROKrelations in the coming years. This paper ultimately will consider the possible outcomes ofnegotiations and use the U.S.-ROK nuclear agreement to sketch broad conclusions about thecurrent relationship between U.S. nuclear cooperation agreements and U.S. nonproliferationefforts.