The establishment of Wŏncharyŏk-wŏn(Office of Atomic Energy) of Korea in early 1959 as governmental institute for research and development of atomic energy, was influenced by the new atomic policy of the United States after the president Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" speech presented in the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 8, 1953. The United States had two main aims for advocating new atomic policy and contracting the "Atomic Agreement" with several countries to promote that policy. One was political; to preserve the leadership in the West through providing the nuclear technology. The other was economic; to monopolize world atomic market in the future, because the possibility of commercial atomic generation had increased after the U.S.S.R.'s success in 1954. "The Agreement for Cooperation concerning Civil Use of Atomic Energy between Korea and U.S.A." was based on the American new atomic policy. But there were obvious intentions of Rhee Administration considering the preamble of the Agreement and the comments of Yang Yu Ch'an, the Korean ambassador to the United States. It seems that the primary purpose of Korean government was military at that time. Furthermore, Korean government officials wanted to develop industry and science through nuclear research, and to solve the problem of electricity with atomic energy. But the result of building the institute was different from the original intentions. First, the reactor purchased was suitable only for research so that it could not be used for military purposes and generation of electricity. Second, the main policy of the government to dispatch researchers overseas was not effective to promote atomic research. Yet, on the whole, Wŏncharyŏk-wŏn had played an important role as complex a science-technology institute in Korea until KIST was established in 1966.