A South Korean government research institute says China is seeking to build a nuclear power plant in the Baekdu Mountain area bordering North Korea.

The Korea Energy Economics Institute says China's Jilin Province has announced that it will launch the power plant project in 2012. Some 85 billion yuan, or 14-point-five trillion South Korean won, will be used to build six, 12-hundred-50 megawatt AP-1000 reactors.

AP-1000 is a pressurized water reactor developed by the U.S. firm Westinghouse.

The reactors will be built in the Mount Baekdu district east of Jilin Province.

An official from Seoul's Economy Ministry says no other information on the Chinese project has been obtained.