U.S. designated South Korea a ‘sensitive’ country amid talk of nuclear weapons

ASIA PACIFIC / Politics

U.S. designated South Korea a ‘sensitive’ country amid talk of nuclear weapons

Then-U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol attend an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework event at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November 2023. | REUTERS

By Timothy Gardner, David Brunnstrom and Ju-min Park
REUTERS

Mar 15, 2025

Washington/Seoul – The U.S. Department of Energy has designated ally South Korea a “sensitive” country, a spokesperson said 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 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.

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 the South Korean officials who raised the prospect that South Korea would be forced to pursue nuclear weapons amid fears over North Korea’s accelerated nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and concerns about the strength of the alliance with the U.S., which provides a nuclear shield for South Korea.

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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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...