South Korea, Vietnam leaders agree to expand cooperation in areas such as nuclear power

South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung and Vietnam’s Luong Cuong agreed during a phone call on Thursday to deepen ties with joint high-speed rail and nuclear-energy projects.

South Korea’s newly inaugurated President Lee Jae-myung and Vietnamese President Luong Cuong spoke by telephone on Thursday and agreed to broaden their comprehensive strategic partnership into new, big-ticket infrastructure and energy projects, including high-speed rail links and the joint development of nuclear-power plants. Lee urged “vigorous, high-level exchanges” between ministries to turn those ambitions into concrete programmes, his office said. 

The two leaders reviewed the rapid expansion of bilateral commerce, which reached about US $81.5 billion in 2024 and is officially targeted to hit US $150 billion by 2030. They agreed that deeper supply-chain integration—particularly in semiconductors, consumer electronics and renewable energy—will be critical to achieving that goal. vietnamnews.

Hanoi’s flagship North–South high-speed railway remains a national priority but still lacks proven technology partners. Seoul, whose firms have built and operated KTX lines for two decades, offered technical and financing packages aimed at accelerating Vietnam’s feasibility studies and workforce training. 

South Korea, which runs 26 commercial reactors and is one of the world’s leading exporters of mid-sized nuclear technology, signalled readiness to participate in Vietnam’s revived civil-nuclear plans—covering site assessment, regulatory support and localisation of reactor components. 

Both presidents tasked their foreign, industry and transport ministries with drafting a joint action plan before the year’s end. Senior officials are expected to meet in Hanoi this summer to map out pilot projects and financing models, paving the way for potential inter-governmental agreements when Lee pays his first state visit to Vietnam later in 2025.

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