South Korea industry minister to visit US to discuss tariffs, sensitive country status

South Korea's industry minister will visit Washington, D.C. this week to discuss with top U.S. officials the country's concern over being placed on a U.S. watchlist and to push for fair treatment on tariffs, the industry ministry said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Energy designation of South Korea as a "sensitive country" sparked controversy in Seoul, with the U.S. ally put on the lowest tier of a watchlist that includes China, Iran and North Korea among others.

Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun would "seek measures to quickly resolve the sensitive country designation issue," the ministry said in a statement.

Ahn's visit was an important opportunity, Foreign Minister Cho Ta-yul told lawmakers on Wednesday, when questioned about whether he thought Washington could be persuaded to remove South Korea from the watchlist.

Joseph Yun, the acting U.S. ambassador in Seoul, said on Tuesday that South Korea was added on the list because visitors to the energy department's labs mishandled sensitive information.

When Ahn meets the U.S. secretaries of commerce and energy, he will also stress how much South Korea has invested in the United States to push for fair treatment on trade before U.S. reciprocal tariffs kick in on April 2, the ministry said.

South Korea's trade minister recently also visited Washington, where he urged his American counterparts to exempt the country from tariff measures.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park and Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Ed Davies)