The United States publicly disclosed South Korea's investment projects in the U.S. on the 30th (local time). These include investments in the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) development project and the construction of eight large-scale nuclear power plants. While the South Korean government had reported these projects to the National Assembly as pending discussions, the U.S. treated them as confirmed facts.
President Donald Trump announced the $200 billion strategic investment South Korea agreed to make in the U.S. following last year's Korea-U.S. tariff negotiations during a meeting in the Oval Office. Those present included Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, and Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).
In his announcement, Trump stated, “Thanks to the agreement my administration reached with South Korea, I am pleased to announce one of the largest energy infrastructure investments in U.S. history. The South Korean government plans to invest up to $200 billion.” He added that the investment would fund “6 GW of power generation facilities, eight new large-scale nuclear power plants, and finally, the Alaska LNG pipeline.”
Secretary Lutnick revealed that $120 billion would be invested in constructing eight nuclear power plants, $22 billion in Texas gas power plants, and “over $50 billion” in the Alaska LNG project. The eight large nuclear plants are to be built in Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky.
However, the South Korean government had only finalized the $22.3 billion project to build a gas-fired combined cycle power plant in Ennis, Texas, as the first project, leaving the Alaska LNG and nuclear plant projects as pending discussions.
