President Obama on Tuesday sent Congress a proposed nuclear energy deal with South Korea, and asked members for their approval.
Obama signed off on the agreement last week after speaking to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was supposed to visit this week but canceled to deal with the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak back home.
The two countries have spent four years working on a revision of their 1974 nuclear cooperation agreement.
The new agreement, which would last for at least 20 years if approved, bars Seoul from reprocessing and enrichment but allows South Korea to research other forms of nuclear recycling.
“It would permit the transfer of material, equipment (including reactors), components, information, and technology for nuclear research and nuclear power production,” Obama wrote in his letter to Congress.
The agreement would also establish a high-level bilateral commission that would be headed by the U.S. deputy energy secretary and Seoul’s vice minister of foreign affairs.
“The purpose of the [commission] is to facilitate peaceful nuclear and strategic cooperation between the parties and ongoing dialogue regarding areas of mutual interest in civil nuclear energy, including the civil nuclear fuel cycle,” the letter said.
