U.S. Department of Energy headquarters in Washington, D.C. / UPI-Yonhap

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) did not share any prior information with Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) before designating the nation as a "sensitive country," despite a longstanding intelligence-sharing relationship between the two allies.

The revelation suggests that even the NIS, which has maintained close cooperation with U.S. intelligence agencies, was kept in the dark about the DOE's decision.

According to Rep. Lee Jae-jung of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, in response to an inquiry about Korean scientists and researchers investigated by U.S. authorities for security breaches since 2020, the NIS stated that "no such information has been shared by the U.S. through intelligence cooperation channels."

This confirms there was no prior warning or information exchange related to the downgrade before Korea was placed in the lowest tier of the DOE's "Sensitive Countries and Other Designated Countries List."

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul also said during a parliamentary session Monday that the U.S. did not specify any concrete examples of security violations. On the same day, Vice Minister of Science and ICT Lee Chang-yoon and Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Park Sung-taek also said they had not received any detailed explanations from the U.S. government.

Despite the Korean government's explanation that the "sensitive country" designation was a matter of security protocol, U.S. documents suggest deeper concerns tied to nuclear proliferation and the protection of industrial secrets.

A DOE internal document titled "Section J: Sensitive Foreign Nation Control," reviewed by the Hankook Ilbo, defines sensitive countries as those to which "particular consideration is given for policy reasons during the DOE internal review and approval process for visits and assignments by foreign nationals."

A separate memo distributed by then-Energy Secretary Bill Richardson in 1999 noted that the Office of Nonproliferation and National Security will "maintain and distribute a current list of Sensitive Countries which will be updated annually based on input from the appropriate DOE organizations. This list may be supplemented by the Secretary of Energy, to include additional countries posing significant national economic security concerns."

A 1997 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office that raised concerns about the security of nuclear-related technologies at national laboratories under the Department of Energy, identifying not only China and Russia but also South Korea as countries of concern for potential technological intelligence activities. Captured from the report

The U.S. Government Accountability Office in 1997 explicitly defined "sensitive countries" as those that could pose threats to nonproliferation or national security.

It also named South Korea as a country of concern due to suspected intelligence activities at DOE-affiliated national laboratories.

Experts say the designation likely reflects long-accumulated concerns rather than a single security incident.

"One of the DOE's core missions is nonproliferation. In a climate where South Korea's president and political circles have made various remarks about nuclear armament and development, even a minor security breach may have triggered heightened suspicions from the DOE," said Jun Bong-geun, president of the Korean Nuclear Policy Society.

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.