hankyoreh

President Lee Jae Myung announces the adoption of a fact sheet on agreements with the US from the press room of the presidential office in Seoul’s Yongsan District on Nov. 14, 2025. (Yonhap)

On Friday, Korean President Lee Jae Myung personally announced the fact sheet summarizing agreements reached during two recent summits with US President Donald Trump.

The fact sheet was released around 16 days after Lee and Trump reached a deal in the two countries’ long-running tariff talks in a meeting held alongside the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, on Oct. 29.

“We’ve finished preparing the joint fact sheet detailing the agreements reached between our two countries in our two summits,” Lee said in a press conference held in the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul, on Friday.

“This wraps up our security deliberations, as well as the tariff talks that had been one of the greatest variables in our economy and national security. As president, I express my sincere gratitude to the Korean people for their trust and support in the government, to the businesspeople who worked energetically with the government, and to the civil servants in the negotiations who strove valiantly for our national interest,” Lee said.

Lee also commented on the Korea-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement and permission for Korea to build nuclear-powered submarines, which was reportedly a sticking point in the negotiations.

“We’ve reached an agreement with the US about Korea developing nuclear-powered submarines, a strategic asset essential for stability on the Korean Peninsula and a decades-old objective for Korea. We also managed to gain the US government’s support for authorizing our enrichment of uranium and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. That’s thought to be very significant progress,” Lee said.

Lee said the two sides had agreed to “explore institutional changes that will enable not only American commercial vessels but also American naval vessels to be built in Korea.”

Shortly after the summit, Trump had posted on social media that “South Korea will be building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A,” referring to the Hanwha Philly Shipyard.

Lee next discussed bilateral security issues. 

“We reconfirmed the US’ steadfast commitment to extended deterrence and the continued stationing of US troops in Korea. We expressed our determination to play a leading role in the defense of the Korean Peninsula through building up our military and recovering wartime operational control, and the US expressed its support and promised to assist us in those efforts,” the Korean president told reporters.

“The Korea-US alliance has developed into a true future-oriented strategic partnership that covers national security, the economy and high tech. The door has opened for a renaissance in our alliance that will be beneficial for both our countries,” Lee said.

In the Q&A session that followed, Lee tackled a question about why the fact sheet’s release was delayed. 

“The US government’s general position had already been confirmed during the summits, but very different terms were proposed when the detailed document was being drafted. Since this is a critical and potentially fateful matter for Korea, we could not disregard a single subject, or indeed a single word. So we meticulously examined the specifics of the agreement and sharply debated every detail,” he said.

“As many have guessed, I think the issues of uranium enrichment and nuclear reprocessing had to be mulled over inside the US government,” Lee explained.

Lee offered the following reflections on the negotiations with the Americans.

“Despite the grave importance of these matters and their potential impact on the future of our state, there was a strong likelihood that they would be handled unilaterally, according to power relationships, without a reasonable accommodation of our wishes. That’s why there were serious concerns that the national interest and people’s lives would be pushed aside in favor of geopolitical dynamics,” he said.

“While we have our political differences, we should all unite behind reasonable support for the national interest and the Korean people. But we were seriously burdened by pressure we felt from some in our country who demanded that we hastily accept the other side’s demands and accused us of incompetence for not being faster to reach an agreement,” the president said. 

By Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]