Person
South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, overseeing the nation's trade policy, industrial strategy, and energy affairs.
South Korea's trade ministry granted Robros a testing exemption to run 20 humanoid robots in the same spaces as workers at four industrial sites. The grant covers one project, and the rules for wider use are to be written from its data.
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South Korea's trade ministry will open a director-general-level chip office on Oct. 20 to run projects such as the southwestern cluster. It brings 16 new posts, en.sedaily.com reported, against 800 trillion won of planned chip investment, per the Korea Herald.
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Glenfarne needs long-term buyers for 16 million tons of Alaska LNG a year before it can finance a project Korean pipe and ship makers hope to supply. Potential deals cover 13 million tons, mostly nonbinding, and Seoul says any money from its $350 billion US pledge depends on commercial viability.
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South Korea says it will invest in Alaska LNG only if the project proves commercially viable, after the White House put Seoul's stake at $54 billion. Until Seoul's review ends, anyone modeling the pipeline's financing is counting on money Seoul still treats as conditional.
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South Korea's first agreed US investment project is a $23.3 billion gas-fired power plant in Encinal, Texas. Japan's March batch has the same tilt, putting allied money into US generation next to data-center clusters that are short of power.
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Donald Trump is expected to count $54 billion for Alaska LNG in a $200 billion Korean investment plan, Bloomberg and Reuters reported. Seoul still lists Alaska for future talks, so the White House will name the figure before the government paying it has agreed to it.
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Korea swapped two of three projects in its $200 billion U.S. plan for reactors and Alaska LNG, ministry documents obtained by an opposition lawmaker show. Neither went through the feasibility study the originals had, and the only price on the LNG leg is Donald Trump's $54 billion.
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Westinghouse is demanding more than the $175 million licensing fee on each APR1400 built in the US, The Seoul Economic Daily reports. A bigger payment leaves Korea less room on cost and less of the work it needs to make the US reactors commercially reasonable.
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Donald Trump threatened to double what South Korea pays unless Seoul backs an Alaska LNG stake Howard Lutnick put at more than $50 billion. Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, that pressure is landing on allies while Trump keeps a trade truce with China.
Perspective Coverage
4 publishersReality
Donald Trump threatened tariffs of 150% to 300% on foreign firms that do not build US plants within about 18 months, a day after pressing Seoul on Alaska LNG. Seoul says it has only agreed to review that project, so its $350 billion pledge is still being bargained over.
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South Korea exported a record $120.94 billion in September, up 83.5%, with chips supplying $60.3 billion. A $1 trillion year now needs only about $62 billion a month, so the open question is how much of the chip surge is price.
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Korea and ASEAN open a second round in Singapore to rewrite their 2007 goods-only FTA across 13 working groups. Companies sourcing through Southeast Asia should expect revised origin checks and minerals rules to arrive before any tariff cut.
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South Korea will remit a first $2.2 billion for its US projects, including a $22.3 billion Texas LNG plant, once Trump announces them. Last year's agreement makes his public word the trigger, so his crowded diplomatic calendar now sets the payment date.
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Seoul's first statutory resource security plan promises a 50% Middle East crude share by 2035 and 13 more state-managed minerals, but the only money on the table this year is a freight subsidy capped at the levies refiners paid.
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Kim Jung-kwan left for the United States on the 16th, a day after President Lee dismissed top negotiator Yeo Han-koo. The first project and the tariff ceiling are both unresolved.
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Seoul's trade minister returned from Washington with a reported tentative agreement to build at least two APR1400 units inside an eight-reactor, $120 billion program that Westinghouse wants built entirely to its own design.
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Kim Jung-kwan came back from Washington saying the targets, scale and structure of the projects were still being worked, that several issues are unresolved, and that he intends to try for a final deal inside the week.
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South Korea's trade minister has confirmed the $200 billion US investment tranche moves at no more than $20 billion a year. Every project must first show cash flow that covers its own principal and interest.
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The Democratic Party has handed its mega special zone bill to the Political Affairs Committee instead of the industry committee the opposition chairs, while the water and permit amendments a cluster actually needs stay behind.
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The government's second feasibility study lifts the projected annual farm loss 59 per cent above its 2022 number, which is the figure the farming sector will now negotiate against before any accession bid can open.
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