Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said a decision on South Korea's participation in the Alaska liquefied natural gas(LNG) development project in the United States will likely require a long deliberation.

At a session of the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee on Wednesday, Choi said he did not have the exact subjective information on the current state of the project.

The minister said the head of the energy ministry's energy policy office is scheduled to conduct a field inspection and obtain related information, before Seoul makes its decision.

Bilateral cooperation on the Alaska project, as well as in shipbuilding, reportedly dominated discussions at last week's "two-plus-two" trade dialogue in Washington involving the two sides' finance and trade ministers.

The minister, meanwhile, denied that acting President Han Duck-soo had ordered to swiftly reach an agreement with the U.S. on trade issues prior to the bilateral consultation.