U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that Korea will invest more than $50 billion in an Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has put Seoul in an awkward position. Washington may regard the investment as settled, but Seoul does not. At the White House on Wednesday, Trump said Korea had agreed to participate in several major U.S. investment projects, including an Alaska LNG development, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick put the Korean investment at more than $50 billion. Yet Korea has not publicly committed to that amount, and the project remains subject to further review. The disagreement is not merely procedural. It goes to the heart of how public money and corporate capital should be allocated. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan has repeatedly stressed that Seoul will invest only where there is “commercial rationality.” Testifying before the National Assembly last year, Kim described the Alaska gas pipeline as a high-risk project and said Korea could participate only in projects capable of generating sustainable cash flows. That principle should not be dismissed as r