South Korean President Lee Jae Myung pushed back on President Donald Trump’s assertion that Korea had agreed to commit hundreds of billions of dollars in new U.S. investments, including up to $54 billion for a natural gas pipeline project in Alaska.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday night, Trump celebrated the U.S.-Korea agreement to build eight large-scale nuclear reactors and a big investment in the Alaska LNG project, a proposed energy project to transport natural gas more than 800 miles from Alaska’s oil-rich Arctic region to the rest of state and eventually overseas markets.
But hours later, Lee pushed back on Trump’s position that an agreement had been reached, writing on X that the “Alaska LNG project will proceed to working level under the preconditions that 1) its commercial viability is confirmed and 2) it complies with the legal procedures of the Republic of Korea.”
South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan, told reporters on Thursday that he “lodged a strong protest” with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick “as the announcement went far beyond what was agreed.”
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“The countries agreed to proceed with the Alaska project only on the premise that commercial reasonableness is guaranteed,” he said.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended Trump’s comments, describing the announcement as “historic for the great state of Alaska, the United States, and the Republic of Korea.”
“The President and Alaskans look forward to the construction and completion of this long-anticipated project that will create 12,000 construction jobs and 1,300 permanent operation jobs in the state, generate $25 billion in state and local revenue, and provide $10 billion in Alaska energy savings,” Rogers said in a statement.
The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Korean government had previously characterized a $22 billion Texas power plant as the only formally selected and agreed upon part of their strategic investment framework, while describing the other nuclear and Alaska energy ventures as projects in need of further review.
Trump threatened South Korea with 25% tariffs in April 2025 as part of his “Liberation Day” announcement of sweeping tariffs on some of the U.S.’s largest trading partners — a move the Supreme Court struck down in February.
After Trump sent Lee a letter threatening to reimpose the higher tariff rate, South Korea eventually agreed to a 15% tariff rate in July 2025 in exchange for the $350 billion in U.S. investment that’s the source of ongoing strife between the two countries.
The Memorandum of Understanding signed in November 2025 by the U.S. and South Korea pledged $200 billion in strategic investments and $150 billion in shipbuilding projects, but in many cases, specifics have not been announced.
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