"Invest in Alaska or Face Double the Cost": Trump Steps Up Blatant Pressure

[Anchor]

U.S. President Donald Trump has unilaterally claimed that he has secured South Korea's investment in an oil production expansion project worth more than 11 trillion won. Previously, regarding the announced Alaska LNG project, he issued a warning that if the South Korean government does not agree, the billed amount will be doubled.

Washington correspondent Lee Hanseok has more.

[Reporter]

U.S. President Trump posted on his social media that negotiations with South Korea are continuing to improve, stating that South Korea will invest 8.4 billion dollars, approximately 11.3 trillion won, in an enhanced oil recovery project.

Although it is a technology that extracts remaining crude oil by injecting carbon dioxide and other substances, specific project details or locations were not disclosed.

This is identical to his previous unilateral announcement of the 50 billion dollar Alaska LNG project without any agreement from the South Korean government.

When the South Korean government expressed hesitation, stating nothing has been finalized, President Trump poured out blatant pressure tactics.

[Trump / U.S. President: If South Korea does not want to do the Alaska project, that is fine with me. We can simply charge them more costs.]

This is interpreted as threatening remarks implying that he will significantly increase burdens in other areas such as tariffs or defense cost sharing.

President Trump has recently been pouring out astronomical infrastructure plans, such as an Iowa steel mill and a large Alabama bridge.

U.S. media outlets pointed out that with the actual operational timeline set for after 2030, these are election-oriented cards that are too late and too minimal to sway voters exhausted by high inflation and high interest rates.

Behind President Trump's consecutive high-stakes moves lies a sense of electoral crisis driven by surging oil prices.

As diesel prices surging past 6.5 dollars per gallon emerged as a major fuse, the Trump administration raised the level of pressure by even pulling out a diesel export ban card targeting Europe.

Ultimately, the G7 held an emergency video conference and abruptly agreed to release 100 million barrels of strategic diesel and crude oil reserves into the market over the next 4 months.

Following the news of the strategic petroleum reserve release, international oil prices reacted immediately, plunging 5 percent during intraday trading.

Attention is focused on whether the push-style investment announcements and the strategic reserve release card, which erupted right before the election, can lead to a rebound in the approval ratings of the Trump administration.

(Video Journalist: Oh Jung-shik, Video Editor: Won Hyung-hee)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.