- South Korea–Vietnam expand nuclear and infrastructure ties.
- KEPCO–VinAtom to develop SMRs, regulation, training.
- Vietnam targets ≥183 GW power by 2030 with nuclear share.
South Korea and Vietnam signed the MOU on nuclear energy co-operation during President Yoon's state visit on August 11, 2025, along with a series of other MOUs on nuclear power and other broad areas of co-operation, including renewable energy, infrastructure, high-speed rail, finance and technology, with a target of reaching $150 billion bilateral trade by 2030.
The renewed attention to co-operation on nuclear follows the two countries' agreement, in February 2025, to restart director-level nuclear industry discussions which had not taken place since 2017, aimed at having formal consultation on reactor development, and regulatory and technology co-operation.
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KEPCO from South Korea, signed an MOU with VinAtom from Vietnam as a key element of the energy agreement to work together on next-generation nuclear technologies and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). This MOU includes efforts to work together on SMR design, safety, license, regulatory framework, and provide a specific skilled workforce training.
This partnership has several strategic scope issues: it helps to fulfill Vietnam's national power aspirations of growing capacity from ~80 GW in 2023 to 183-236 GW by 2030, and to source power from nuclear at 6.4 GW at start-up; and provide opportunities for both countries industrialists to access more advanced infrastructure markets.