South Korea
said Monday that it signed an
agreement Monday for nuclear power cooperation with India,
providing a legal basis for South Korea's
future participation in nuclear power plant projects in India.
The agreement was signed after South Korea's
President Lee Myung-bak met with India's President Pratibha Patil,
the presidential office said in a statement.
It comes amid recent concerns that economies around the world will shift away
from reliance on nuclear-power generation in the wake of Japan's nuclear crisis, with Germany for
example announcing plans to abandon nuclear power by 2022.
Many Seoul-based analysts have said South Korea isn't likely to make
any drastic changes regarding its nuclear-power plant policies, as the
resource-deprived nation strives to meet increasing power demand.
Korea Electric Power Corp., which wholly owns Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power
Co., has plans to boost annual revenue from its overseas business, including
nuclear-power plant projects, to KRW26 trillion ($24.6 billion) by 2020
compared with KRW1.7 trillion ($1.6 billion) last year.
The state-run company's target destinations for
future nuclear-related exports
include Egypt, the Republic of South Africa,
Vietnam, India, Turkey,
Malaysia, Kuwait, Saudi
Arabia and Thailand, the company has said.