Former Deputy Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo warned an American official in 2010 that revising the Nuclear Cooperation Agreement could soon become a “defining issue” in South Korea-US relations, and that it was already attracting “significant amounts of negative press attention.” Given South Korea’s status as one of the world’s top five nuclear-power producers, Chun argued, the South Korean public would not tolerate the perception that Japan was receiving preferential treatment.
前外交部副部长千英宇曾在2010年警告美国官员，修改核合作协议或许很快会成为韩美关系中的“决定性要素”，并且正在吸引“大量的负面媒体关注”。千英宇认为因为韩国位列世界前五大核电生产国，韩国公众无法容忍日本得到优惠待遇。