South Korean officials said a Czech court's choice to pause a large project for South Korea to build nuclear reactors is just a short-term problem. They believe the deal will still happen.

A group of companies from South Korea, with help from the government, thought they would finish a deal this week. They wanted to sign it with a company in the Czech Republic called CEZ, which sells the most electricity there. But a court in the Czech Republic stopped CEZ from signing. The court is checking a complaint from a French company called EDF, which also wanted the deal but did not get it.

South Korea's Industry Minister, Ahn Dukgeun, spoke to reporters in Prague. He said the court's decision would only make the contract signing happen later. He also said that everything else would still happen on time if the deal happens. He added that the Czech government did not expect the court to stop the agreement. He said that CEZ wants to ask the court to look at the decision again.

We don't know when the court in the Czech Republic will decide about that appeal.

Ahn said, "The Czech government didn't think EDF's claims were a big problem. They asked us to come to the signing. It seems the government's decision was different from the court's decision."

The Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, said his government agreed with the court's decision. He also said, "I think the judges and the court know how important this decision is and how it will affect the safety of the Czech Republic and what is good for our country."

Lee Ju-Ho, who is leading South Korea for now, said his country will talk a lot with the Czech people to finish the agreement fast.

In July, a company called CEZ chose KHNP to build two nuclear reactors. They chose KHNP instead of another company called EDF. Last week, EDF went to court because the Czech Republic's office for competition did not agree with their complaint about how the building job was offered.

Before he left his job last month, the former president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, said he wanted to sell more nuclear power plants to other countries. He thought the government before him, which wanted to use less nuclear power in South Korea, had made it hard to sell them. Yoon's government wanted to sell 10 nuclear power plants by the year 2030.