U.S. President Donald Trump answers reporters’ questions before boarding the presidential helicopter Marine One at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 3 local time. EPA-Yonhap
President Donald Trump is raising the pressure on South Korea over its U.S. investment commitments, confirming the Alaska liquefied natural gas project despite what Seoul understood the two sides had agreed and now citing an $8.4 billion enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project as well. After officials in Seoul said the Alaska LNG project had not been finalized, Trump said he would simply charge Korea more.
According to foreign media reports on the 4th, Trump told reporters at the White House on the 2nd that the Alaska LNG announcement was not premature, noting that a Korean delegation had been present at the talks. He was responding to a question about Seoul’s position that the project had not been confirmed.
“If Korea doesn’t want to do it, that’s fine. We’ll just charge them more,” Trump said. He then asked reporters whether Korea had said it would not sign, and warned them to tell Seoul that the amount would double unless it signed soon. He did not specify what would double, but because the U.S. investment package was pursued in exchange for lower tariffs, the remark was read as a threat to raise tariffs if Korea does not invest in the Alaska LNG project.
Trump formally announced the U.S. investment projects on the 30th of last month. At that event, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Korea would invest slightly more than $50 billion in the Alaska LNG project. A joint press release and fact sheet issued by both countries said the two sides had agreed to begin a review of the Alaska LNG project, subject to commercial reasonableness and the satisfaction of all relevant domestic legal requirements. Washington nonetheless announced unilaterally that the project would go ahead and how large it would be. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan lodged a formal protest with Lutnick shortly after the U.S. announcement, sources said.
Trump also described as part of the U.S. investment package a project that appears nowhere in the bilateral agreement. On the morning of the 2nd, he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he was pleased to announce the deal with Korea had gotten better and that Korea would invest $8.4 billion in an EOR project. The project is not mentioned anywhere in the agreement between the two countries, leaving Korean trade officials struggling to determine whether it is genuine.
The total size of the investment is also at issue. Seoul and Washington had earlier agreed on $22.3 billion for the Encinal LNG combined-cycle power plant in Texas and $120 billion for the construction of eight nuclear reactors in the United States. Adding the $50 billion allocated to the Alaska LNG project and the $8.4 billion EOR project brings the total to $200.7 billion. The two countries had agreed that Korea’s investment in the United States would not exceed $200 billion, meaning Trump is unilaterally demanding more than that. “The Trump administration is in a considerable hurry ahead of the midterm elections in November,” an industry official said. “There appear to be a mountain of knots to untangle in the follow-up negotiations on the U.S. investment.”
