Kazakhstan’s energy minister, Yerlan Akkenzhenov, and South Korea’s minister of trade, industry and energy, Kim Jung Kwan, discussed expanding energy cooperation on 9 June, focusing on the electricity sector, modernising energy infrastructure, building new generation capacity and clean-energy technology. The Korea National Oil Corporation is under consideration for exploration work in KazMunayGas’s portfolio, and Doosan Enerbility remains a key Korean partner in power infrastructure.
The talks followed the 11th Kazakh-Korean joint commission on 8 June, where the two sides prepared a draft memorandum on nuclear cooperation, including small modular reactors and training. Officials put bilateral trade at about 3.17 billion dollars in 2025 and South Korean investment at some 8 billion dollars over the past decade, across roughly 46 joint projects, with critical minerals and the Alatau City project also on the agenda. The meetings come ahead of a planned Tokayev visit to Seoul.
Seoul is one more suitor for a country scrambling to add power, alongside Russia’s Rosatom and China’s CNNC.
The interest lands as Kazakhstan tries to close a power deficit. Rosatom is set to build the country’s first plant at Ulken on Lake Balkhash, China’s CNNC is the preferred contractor for a planned second, and Seoul’s reactor builders are now in the conversation. Generation, not ambition, is the scarce input.