Trump Says "South Korea and Japan Are Going to Alaska"—Mentioned Again in LNG Project

[Financial News] U.S. President Donald Trump again mentioned South Korea and Japan in connection with the Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
President Trump told reporters at the White House on the 2nd (local time), "We have Japan and South Korea. All these people are going to Alaska to load up fuel, load up oil, build pipelines, and do all the other things."
Trump made the remarks while saying he would "go to Alaska" to help Republican candidate Dan Sullivan, who is seeking a third term in the state's U.S. Senate election.
Senator Sullivan and Democratic candidate Mary Peltola recently advanced through the primary. They will face each other in a runoff conducted under a ranked-choice voting (RCV) system, and U.S. media outlets expect a close race.
President Trump called Dan Sullivan "a great senator" and said, "Nobody has helped Alaska like Donald Trump. We invested billions of dollars and created trillions of dollars in value." He then abruptly brought up South Korea and Japan "going to Alaska."
President Trump's remarks appear to have referred to the "Alaska pipeline project to export natural gas to Asia" that he announced on January 20 while presenting a trade agreement between the United States and the two countries.
At the time, after mentioning the project, President Trump emphasized, "As we finalized agreements with South Korea and Japan, we secured unprecedented levels of funding."
He was explaining that, in exchange for reducing the reciprocal tariff from 25% to 15% through trade agreements with the United States, South Korea had pledged $350 billion in investment in the United States and Japan $550 billion.
The Alaska LNG project is one of President Trump's key policy priorities, and the Trump administration has raised the possibility that South Korean and Japanese investment in the United States could be used for it.
The project primarily involves extracting natural gas from Alaska's North Slope, transporting it through a newly built gas pipeline spanning approximately 1,300 kilometers to Nikiski, an ice-free port near Anchorage, liquefying it there, and then supplying it to demand centers.

[email protected] International Affairs Correspondent Lee Seok-woo Reporter