Overview
- U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker will lead an interagency delegation to Seoul in the coming weeks to launch bilateral working groups to implement the October 2025 summit agreements.
- South Korea’s Navy has formally opened the domestic acquisition process for nuclear-powered attack submarines by submitting a statement of required capability to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
- The working groups will focus on sensitive items named in the joint fact sheet, including U.S. cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines and a process toward civilian uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing.
- U.S. officials have said progress is conditional on nonproliferation safeguards, fair treatment for U.S. firms and resolution of trade and industrial disputes, and Washington has limited some intelligence sharing over information-security concerns.
- Seoul is preparing regulatory steps and program plans that could use low-enriched uranium below 20% and expect construction to take roughly a decade after technical agreements are finalized, which could reshape alliance logistics and industrial ties.