President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that South Korea and the United States are renegotiating parts of a $350 billion investment package over details in the agreement reached in working-level negotiations.
The remarks shed light on the last-minute postponement of plans to unveil South Korea’s first project under its $350 billion strategic investment commitment to the US.
“I was told we were close to an agreement, but from what I saw in the details, there were some parts that were difficult to agree on, so we are still discussing them,” Lee said during a special press conference at Cheong Wa Dae House in Seoul.
Lee said that issues revolve around the clause stipulating “commercial reasonableness,” which concerns how the investing party would recover its investment, how returns would be distributed and how potential losses would be handled.
Seoul had initially planned to discuss the project through its US investment project management and operating committees this week before reporting it to the National Assembly and making the details public. A parliamentary briefing tentatively scheduled for Thursday was pushed back to Tuesday, while the public announcement was also put on hold.
