WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) ― Gary Samore, President Barack Obama’s top aide for nonproliferation, said Monday that the U.S. sees no need for South Korea to enrich uranium, a stance against Seoul’s goals.

Samore, arms control coordinator at the White House National Security Council, said South Korean can continue to buy enrichment services from the U.S. and France and in other international markets rather than having its own uranium-enrichment technology.

“So there is no danger that Korean industry will not be able to get access to low enriched uranium,” which is fuel for the country’s 22 reactors, he said in meeting with several South Korean reporters after a forum on the Nuclear Security Summit. Seoul hosted the second Nuclear Security Summit in March.

“You don’t have to worry about any limit Korea will have,” he added, citing the nation’s record of safe and advanced operation of atomic energy plants.

The forum, organized by the South Korean Embassy here, was designed to review the results of the summit and prepare for the next session in the Netherlands in 2014.

Samore’s comments apparently reflect Washington’s firm stance to keep restricting South Korea from having uranium-enrichment technology in line with its global nonproliferation efforts.