Trump Directly Announces S. Korea's U.S. Investment Plans Including Alaska LNG and 8 Nuclear Reactors

[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump has just directly announced South Korea's investment plans in the United States. Let's connect to Washington for more details.

Correspondent Lee Hanseok, could you first explain the overall details?

[Reporter]

Yes, U.S. President Trump announced via a White House briefing that South Korea will invest in the Alaska LNG project.

[Donald Trump / U.S. President: The Alaska LNG pipeline project is finally moving forward. This is a very big deal, and that's why we have so many people here from Alaska.]

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who attended the briefing, also stated that South Korea will invest more than $50 billion in the Alaska LNG project.

Trump added that South Korea will also invest in the construction of a 6-gigawatt combined-cycle gas turbine power plant in Texas and the construction of eight large-scale nuclear reactors.

The Alaska LNG project is a massive undertaking to transport natural gas from the North Slope through a pipeline of approximately 1,300 kilometers to southern Alaska for liquefaction.

The plan is to export LNG long-term to Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. However, major energy companies like ExxonMobil pulled out of the project 10 years ago due to a lack of commercial viability.

[Anchor]

The announcement was a bit delayed from the scheduled time, wasn't it?

[Reporter]

Yes, it was originally scheduled for 4:30 a.m. today, Korea time.

It started belatedly, running about an hour past the scheduled time.

It has not yet been confirmed whether the delay was due to prolonged internal negotiations over specific briefing details or because of other closed-door schedules.

[Anchor]

Our government had previously stated that it needed to further examine the business viability of the Alaska LNG development project, but it has now been included.

[Reporter]

Yes, this appears to be tied to Trump's political calculations to maximize domestic economic achievements ahead of the November midterm elections.

The intent is to highlight that he has attracted massive capital and manufacturing jobs from an ally amid the burdens of inflation and high interest rates.

Our government previously stated that participation in the Alaska LNG project had not yet been finalized and that it would decide whether to participate after weighing commercial rationality.

It appears to have been announced unilaterally without consultations with our government. However, under the memorandum of understanding signed with the U.S. last year and the South Korea-U.S. Strategic Investment Special Act, investment destinations are to be selected by the U.S. president through consultations between the two countries.

Therefore, even if President Trump made a unilateral announcement, it is effectively difficult to block.

Going forward, the key will be how to coordinate the investment amount and project scale through detailed follow-up negotiations with the U.S. government.

(Live Broadcasting: Oh Jung-shik | Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.