ROKG TO CONSIDER MEGAPORTS DISCUSSION

UNCLAS SEOUL 000192 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE PASS DOE NNSA FOR DCHONG, SCLARK, WWONSANG, VMVVOY, DROBERTS, BSHORTER STATE PASS DHS/CBP FOR RDINUCCI, DSTAJCAR, PDAY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETTC KNNP KS PREL SUBJECT: ROKG TO CONSIDER MEGAPORTS DISCUSSION REF: STATE 09579 ¶1. (SBU) Per reftel, Econoff on February 8 met with Second Secretary Kim He-jin in MOFAT's Disarmament and Nonproliferation Division to request meetings on February 25-26 to explore the possibility of establishing a DOE Megaports Initiative in the ROK. ¶2. (SBU) Kim thought MOFAT would probably support opening Megaports Initiative discussions, but said additional ROKG interagency review would first be necessary. She offered to circulate the proposal among relevant ROKG ministries and provide an official response as soon as possible. ¶3. (SBU) Preliminarily, Kim said the Korean Customs Service(KCS) would likely want a written request to initiate discussions. In addition, KCS would be reluctant to meet with DOE until it receives written notification from Customs Boarder and Protection(CBP) about its intentions to terminate the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) pilot project in Busan in mid-March 2010. (Note: At a December 2009 meeting in Seoul, CBP informed KCS that it would terminate the Busan SFI project and remove its scanning equipment when the pilot program expired in mid-March. The ROKG, however, claimed it owned the equipment pursuant to the Declaration of Principles which established SFI. DOE indicated it would keep its radiation scanners in the ROK under the Megaports Initiative.) STEPHENS