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US president Donald Trump has given approval for South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, a move that would admit Seoul to a small club of nations possessing such vessels.
Trump met South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday in the southern town of Gyeongju, where the US leader arrived for a summit ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum.
On Wednesday, Seoul’s presidential aide said the two countries had reached a broad deal covering investment and shipbuilding, while Trump said the agreement was “pretty much” finalised.
“I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine, rather than the old fashioned, and far less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they have now,” Trump said on Truth Social Thursday.
In a separate post, Trump wrote: “South Korea will be building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A.”
“Shipbuilding in our Country will soon be making a BIG COMEBACK,” he added.
While South Korea has a sophisticated shipbuilding industry, Trump did not spell out where the propulsion technology would come from for a nuclear-powered submarine.
The US has been working with Australia and Britain on the Aukus project, which will allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines involving technology transfers from the United States. The US has so far only shared that technology with Britain, back in the 1950s.
On Wednesday, Lee asked Trump to “make a decision to allow us to receive fuel for nuclear-propelled submarines.”
“We are not proposing to build submarines armed with nuclear weapons; rather, diesel submarines have inferior submerged endurance, which limits our ability to track North Korean or Chinese submarines,” Lee told Trump.
Lee’s predecessors had wanted to build nuclear-powered submarines, but the US had opposed the idea for decades.
The dessert at a luncheon for Trump featured the word “PEACE!”, according to Seoul’s presidential office, echoing the two leaders’ first meeting when they pledged to act as a “peacemaker” and a “pacemaker” for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea remain high as Pyongyang deepens military and economic links with Russia.
Trump said Wednesday he was not able to arrange a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during his visit to the South, ending fierce speculation over a possible summit after years of diplomatic deadlock.
Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said the issue of South Korea acquiring such submarines “raises all sorts of questions.”
“As with the AUKUS deal, (South Korea) is probably looking for nuclear propulsion services suitable for subs, including the fuel, from the US,” he said.
Kimball said such submarines usually involved the use of highly enriched uranium and would “require a very complex new regime of safeguards” by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has a key role in implementing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
“It remains technically and militarily unnecessary for South Korea to acquire the technology to extract weapons-usable plutonium from spent fuel or to acquire uranium enrichment capabilities, which can also be used to produce nuclear weapons,” he said.
“If the United States seeks to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons worldwide, the Trump administration should resist such overtures from allies as strongly as it works to deny adversary access to these dual-use technologies.”
