U.S. ban on S. Korea's nuclear fuel reprocessing to undermine bilateral ties: scholar

By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. ban on South Korea's right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel will likely undermine the bilateral relationship unless the relevant pact is revised to meet South Korea's growing role in the global nuclear energy market, a scholar said Tuesday.

"South Korea's opportunities to provide technology, plants, and services in the
nuclear energy sector depend on the successful conclusion of a new bilateral
cooperation agreement with the United States, but U.S. denial of an agreement
that fits with South Korea's emerging role would clearly mean a severe economic
and political fall-out for the U.S.-ROK relationship," Scott Snyder, director of
the Center for U.S.-Korea Policy at the Asia Foundation, said in a contribution
to the Web site of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Snyder was referring to a 1974 agreement that calls for South Korea to obtain
U.S. consent before reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
The agreement expires in 2014 and the sides are expected to begin negotiations
toward a new accord, which South Korea hopes will guarantee its right to
reprocess spent fuel rods.
South Korea, which last month won a US$20 billion contract to build four reactors
for the United Arab Emirates, has long complained that the constraint on
reprocessing has blocked its aspirations.
"The rationale for having such a capability in order to compete in the
international nuclear energy export market looks different from the rationale of
trying to match North Korean nuclear weapons development capabilities," Snyder
said. "At present, South Korea is the only nuclear energy supplier among six
countries that cannot independently provide enrichment or reprocessing services
to address issues related to nuclear waste."
This poses a dilemma for the United States.
"On the one hand, the restrictions imposed under the 1974 agreement do not fit
with the level and dimensions of the U.S.-ROK nuclear relationship that are
required in the twenty-first century; on the other hand, the United States
continues to have a special responsibility to uphold nuclear non-proliferation
norms, especially by dissuading South Korea from the pursuit of additional
reprocessing capabilities," the scholar said.
Snyder noted that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty legitimizes the right to
peaceful development of nuclear energy.
"But the line between the two is not as bright as many might like, especially
given that mastery of enrichment and reprocessing technologies under the NPT can
be the first steps toward developing nuclear weapons, as in the cases of North
Korea and Iran," he said.
Complicating the situation are the agreements the U.S. maintains with India,
Japan and the European Union for the provision of technological assistance for
the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
"The U.S. decision to allow India to have such capacities a few years ago
strengthens South Korea's argument that it should be allowed to reprocess, but
U.S. reluctance to grant similar consent to South Korea will not be easily
accepted in Seoul," Snyder said.
At her confirmation hearing early last year, Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of
state for arms control and international security, said, "The administration does
not believe that such programmatic consent to reprocessing is necessarily
appropriate in other cases, including Taiwan and the Republic of Korea."
Snyder said that South Korea has advocated "a qualifications-based approach
through which countries with responsible track records and well-developed nuclear
energy markets would be able to have access to enrichment and reprocessing
technologies."
"Such technologies might also help to address the growing problem of nuclear
waste storage, which is especially acute in South Korea given its heavy reliance
on nuclear energy and small geographic size," he said.
At issue is whether the Obama administration considers pyroprocessing as
reprocessing.
South Korea maintains that pyroprocessing, which is less conducive to
proliferation, differs from reprocessing by leaving the separated plutonium mixed
with other elements. But nonproliferation advocates say little difference exists
between the two.
Tauscher, however, made it clear at the time that the Obama administration
opposes South Korea reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. "I believe that the
existence of a reprocessing plant in the Republic of Korea would be inconsistent
with the commitments made in the 1992 joint declaration," she said.
The 1992 declaration signed by the two Koreas calls for denuclearization of the
Korean Peninsula, although Pyongyang ironically began developing its nuclear
arsenal at around that time to create the first North Korean nuclear crisis in
1994.
South Korea has its own history of nuclear weapons development.
The late President Park Chung-hee sought a clandestine project for the
development of nuclear weapons in the 1970s to cope with military threats from
the North as the Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter administrations took steps to
reduce U.S. troops in Korea.
Park's ambitions were thwarted by the U.S., which successfully pressured France
and Canada to refrain from helping South Korea build nuclear reactors capable of
producing weapons-grade uranium.
The U.S. fears a nuclear-armed South Korea might provoke the North, and then
Japan, making the security situation in Northeast Asia more volatile.
Amid a simmering debate on South Korea's nuclear armament after North Korea's
second nuclear test early last year, Obama assured "the continuing commitment of
extended deterrence, including the U.S. nuclear umbrella" in the first written
guarantee by any U.S. president.
Snyder suggested that the sides come up with "some creative thinking to avoid a
train wreck in U.S.-ROK negotiations over this issue ... including the
possibility of placing a regional enrichment facility in South Korea under
international management."
The scholar also called on South Korea to focus on "nuclear responsibility"
rather than on "nuclear sovereignty" to maintain "its own international
competitiveness in this newly emerging sector."
hdh@yna.co.kr
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