U.S. Vice President Vance said on Monday that South Korea's participation in the $54 billion Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project would "basically happen," injecting new certainty into the energy cooperation plan. He stressed that U.S. natural gas demand is strong and that he is confident the project will move forward. Earlier, South Korea had transferred $2.4 billion to the U.S. last week as the first tranche of investment commitments under the bilateral trade agreement. U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened on October 2 that if South Korea did not agree to invest in the project, the U.S. would charge it higher fees. The South Korean government had previously stated that its participation was contingent on the project's economic viability.