Trump says South Korea has approval to build nuclear-powered submarine

GYEONGJU, South Korea – US President Donald Trump said that on Oct 30 he has given South Korea approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine, a dramatic move that will admit Seoul to a small club of nations possessing such vessels.

The submarine will be built at a Philadelphia shipyard, where South Korean firms have increased investment, Mr Trump wrote on social media.

“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,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Trump, who met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and other regional leaders during his visit, also said Seoul has agreed to buy vast quantities of US oil and gas.

Mr Trump and Mr Lee

finalised details of a fraught trade deal

at a summit in South Korea on Oct 29.

Mr Lee has also been seeking US permission for South Korea to reprocess nuclear fuel. Seoul is barred from reprocessing without US consent, under a pact between the countries.

South Korea’s Industry Ministry said its officials have not been involved in any detailed discussions about building the submarines in Philadelphia.

While South Korea has a sophisticated shipbuilding industry, Mr Trump did not spell out where the propulsion technology will come from for a nuclear-powered submarine, which only a handful of countries currently possess.

One opposition lawmaker said on Oct 30 that the Philadelphia shipyard does not have facilities to build submarines.

Asked about Mr Trump’s submarine announcement, Hanwha Ocean, which owns the shipyard with another Hanwha affiliate, said it is ready to cooperate with both countries and provide support with advanced technology, but did not mention specifics.

Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that plans called for South Korea to build its own submarines and modular reactors, and receive a supply of enriched uranium fuel from the US.

Mr Seok Jong-gun, Minister for the Defence Acquisition Programme Administration, told the same hearing on Oct 30 that South Korea has been developing small nuclear reactors for some time, and will be able to build one for a submarine in less than the decade usually needed to develop such nuclear-powered vessels.

“We believe if we use the technologies we have been preparing for the future... we’ll be able to achieve this within a short period of time,” he said.

The

US has been working with Australia and Britain

on a project for Canberra to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, involving technology transfers from the US.

The US has so far shared that technology only with Britain, back in the 1950s.

Mr Lee said when he met Mr Trump on Oct 29 that allowing South Korea to build several nuclear-powered submarines equipped with conventional weapons will significantly reduce the burden on the US military.

He also asked for Mr Trump’s support to make substantial progress on

South Korea being allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel

, or on uranium enrichment, something currently not allowed under the nuclear agreement between the two countries, even though South Korea possesses nuclear reactors to generate power.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Beijing “hopes that South Korea and the United States will earnestly fulfil their nuclear non-proliferation obligations and do things to promote regional peace and stability, and not the other way around”.

Approval raises questions

Mr Lee’s predecessors had wanted to build nuclear-powered submarines, but the US had opposed this idea for decades.

Mr 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.

Mr Kimball said such submarines usually involve the use of highly enriched uranium and will “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.

“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.”

Ms Jenny Town, who heads 38 North, a Korea-focused research group in Washington, said it is inevitable that South Korean demands for US cooperation on nuclear issues will grow, given recent allegations about Russian technical cooperation to help nuclear-armed North Korea make progress towards acquiring nuclear-powered submarines.

Dr Kim Dong-yup, a North Korea studies professor at Kyungnam University, said the Lee-Trump summit has formalised a “transaction scheme of security guarantees and economic contributions” for maintaining the extended deterrence and alliance in exchange for South Korea’s increased defence spending and nuclear-powered submarines and US investments.

“In the end, this South Korea-US summit can be summarised... (as) the commercialisation of the alliance and the commodification of peace,” he said.

“The problem is that the balance of that deal is to maximise American interests rather than the autonomy of the Korean peninsula.” REUTERS