I think S. Korea was an entirely different, and much smaller deal. It included a secrecy agreement, it was for Korean plants only, and I suspect it was for technology only to produce sucrose( using SucreSource). Korea apparently does not have the strong desire to make cellulosic ethanol that China does.
I do think the DOE may reverse their decision, since all the rest of financing plus construction is now available. Also, the DOE has a lot of clean energy failures on its record, and a highly successful grant for cellulosic ethanol now could reinstate a lot of respect to the DOE.
