South Korea will “move forward” with the United States in building nuclear-powered submarines, President Lee Jae Myung said Friday, after a long-awaited security and trade agreement was finalised.
Analysts say developing the atomic-powered vessels would mark a significant leap in Seoul’s naval and defence industrial base, allowing it to join a select group of countries with such vessels.
“One of the greatest variables for our economy and security the bilateral negotiations on trade, tariffs and security have been finalised,” Lee told a news conference, adding the two countries had agreed to “move forward with building nuclear-powered submarines”.
Seoul had secured “support for expanding our authority over uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing”, he said.
A joint fact sheet outlining the deal said both sides would “collaborate further through a shipbuilding working group” to “increase the number of US commercial ships and combat-ready US military vessels”.
Beijing, on Thursday, voiced caution over a Washington-Seoul deal on nuclear submarine technology.
The partnership “goes beyond a purely commercial partnership, directly touching on the global non-proliferation regime and the stability of the Korean Peninsula and the wider region,” Dai Bing, China’s ambassador to Seoul told reporters.
Details remain murky on where the nuclear submarines will be built.
U.S President Donald Trump said on social media last month that “South Korea will be building its aNuclear-Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyards, right here in the good ol’ U.S.A”.
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