Trump announced South Korea’s $54 billion investment in Alaska — Seoul: “We have made no commitment”

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday a $54 billion investment by South Korea in Alaska’s liquefied natural gas project, but Seoul replied on Thursday that it has made no firm commitment.

The figure was presented by Trump as part of the broader deal under which Seoul will invest $200 billion in U.S. energy, in exchange for lower tariffs on South Korean goods, as CNN reports.

However, according to CNN, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources, Kim Jung-kwan, told the Korean agency Yonhap on Thursday that “expressing figures or using definitive language goes far beyond what was agreed.” The U.S. Department of Commerce statement said only that the parties had agreed “to begin work” on the project, “subject to commercial reasonableness,” without mentioning any figure.

As CNN reports, tensions between the two allies have deepened in recent weeks: a raid by U.S. immigration authorities (ICE) on Hyundai’s plant in the state of Georgia led to the arrest of nearly 500 people, most of them South Korean citizens, causing anger in Seoul.

Energy security has meanwhile become a key topic ahead of the November midterm elections, as the war with Iran has hit the global oil supply and raised fuel prices. The Alaska project — an 807-mile pipeline together with an export terminal for liquefied natural gas, with an estimated cost of $45–55 billion — has been in development for more than a decade, but has stalled for lack of financing. South Korea is the world’s third-largest importer of LNG, while the United States is its largest producer and exporter.

As CNN writes, the office of Republican Senator Dan Sullivan welcomed on Wednesday the “historic $54 billion investment,” while Democrat Mary Peltola — his rival in the tight Alaska Senate race — has supported the project as a way to lower energy costs for the state’s residents.