DOE chief says 'sensitive' country issue will not undermine Korea-US cooperation: official

The U.S. secretary of energy has confirmed Korea will have no problem in its bilateral cooperation with the United States despite Seoul's designation as a "sensitive" country, a senior government official here said Monday.

The remarks come after Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun's visit to Washington last week to meet with U.S. government officials, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, to discuss the sensitive country and tariff issues.

"If the country is designated as a sensitive country, procedures for Korean researchers visiting 17 national policy research institutes under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the institutes' researchers visiting Korea could become more complicated," the official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy told reporters on condition of anonymity.

"But the U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told (Ahn) there will be no problem with the ongoing and future bilateral cooperation (between Seoul and Washington) even if Korea is placed on the sensitive country list," he said.

Ahn earlier said the two sides have launched working-level talks to cooperate on a "swift" resolution of the issue.

Ahn's latest visit to Washington, his second trip there in less than a month, came after the DOE confirmed that Korea was placed in the "lowest" category of the department's "sensitive and other designated countries list" (SCL) in early January.

The designation, set to take effect April 15, was made due to technical security issues related to DOE-affiliated research institutions, the Seoul government has noted.

The industry ministry official said the DOE list was meant to be a restricted document, noting it was not clear whether the DOE will disclose its future decisions even if it decides to remove Korea from the list.

On tariff negotiations, another senior official at the industry ministry said the government is preparing a response strategy based on the "worst-case scenario" for the Donald Trump administration's plan to impose reciprocal tariffs.

"We will have to see if the reciprocal tariffs actually take effect or just be announced on April 2, but we are basically preparing for the worst-case scenario of the duties going into effect on that day," the official said, also asking not to be identified.

"Unlike U.S. duties on all steel and aluminum imports, the U.S. may impose different rates of reciprocal tariff by country, so we will have to take a look at the tariff rate we may have to face in comparison with those for our rivals," the official said.

"And since the reciprocal tariff will be equally implemented on all products of a country, we are working to assess the possible impact on sectors that export the most to the U.S. and how to support them," he added.

Korea's major industries, such as the automotive and semiconductor industries, are among the list of sectors with the biggest exports to the U.S.

The Seoul government has been working to help the country get "favorable" treatment from the U.S., emphasizing Korean companies' massive investments in the U.S. and continuing close communications. (Yonhap)