South Korea to send officials to Alaska energy conference, ministry says

South Korea will send its Deputy Minister for Energy Policy and other energy ministry officials to the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference in early June, the ministry said on Thursday, as some Asian countries consider investing in a $44 billion LNG project.

Deputy Minister Lee Hohyeon will visit Alaska and participate in a roundtable hosted by the US Department of Energy, the ministry said.

"We plan to check the progress of the Alaska project using this conference as an opportunity," the statement said.

US President Donald Trump has pressed Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea to back the massive liquefied natural gas project, with some Asian governments weighing up investments in the hopes of relief from US tariffs.

The project would deliver gas from the state's North Slope fields via a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) pipeline for domestic use and also ship it to customers in Asia as LNG, bypassing the Panama Canal.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee Editing by Ed Davies)