U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Allison Hooker is set to visit Seoul within weeks to lead an interagency delegation for the talks.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said First Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, who is visiting the United States, met with Hooker in Washington on Tuesday and exchanged views on overall bilateral relations, including the implementation of the Joint Fact Sheet adopted at last year’s summit, as well as regional and global affairs.
Park and Hooker agreed to hold a kickoff meeting on nuclear-related security commitments under the Joint Fact Sheet released by the two countries in November, “sharing the view that the two allies should swiftly produce tangible results,” the ministry said.
U.S. President Donald Trump visited South Korea last October on the occasion of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and reached a set of trade and security agreements with President Lee Jae Myung.
The security commitments included U.S. approval for South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarine program, as well as Seoul’s authority to pursue uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing — measures South Korea secured in return for its $350 billion investment commitment to the U.S.
The latest announcement is expected to give momentum to the implementation of the agreements, which have drawn criticism for making little progress since they were announced.
The U.S. State Department also said after the meeting that Hooker will travel to Seoul in the coming weeks with an interagency delegation “to launch a bilateral working group” to continue implementing the agreements reached during Trump’s visit to South Korea in October 2025.
At the same time, the department said Hooker emphasized that the United States “expects continued progress in bilateral trade and industrial partnerships,” as well as “the need for fair treatment of U.S. companies” and the swift removal of market access barriers.
The remarks were seen as underscoring Washington’s call for South Korea to quickly follow through on its promised investment in the United States, while also alluding to issues that have emerged between the two countries, including the Coupang data leak and South Korea’s proposed Online Platform Act, which the U.S. has viewed as a non-tariff barrier.
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