The president of the United States, Donald Trump, assured this Thursday that he has authorized South Korea to possess nuclear-powered submarines, which opens the legal path for Seoul to operate a fleet of this type that allows it to confront the superiority that North Korea has in this area around the Korean peninsula.
The announcement came in a message from Trump on his Truth Social social network in which he wrote: “Our military alliance is stronger than ever and, based on this, I have authorized the construction of a nuclear-powered submarine, instead of the antiquated and much less agile diesel-powered submarines they currently have.”
The Republican leader gave this authorization after meeting on Wednesday with the president of South Korea in the South Korean city of Gyeongju, site of the summit of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), where they refined the details of a trade agreement.
In another message published almost simultaneously in Truth Social, the Republican added that “South Korea will build its nuclear-powered submarine in the Philadelphia shipyards, right here in the United States.”
This suggests that the manufacturing of the submersibles will be carried out by the South Korean Hanwha Ocean, which in 2024 took over the Philly Shipyards in Philadelphia and which has committed to the Trump Government to revitalize the shipbuilding industry in the United States.
South Korea has long wanted to develop its own submersibles powered by nuclear reactors, but its main obstacle lies in the legal and technological restrictions derived mainly from its atomic energy pact with the United States, known as “Agreement 123”, which prohibits the Asian country from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel for purposes other than peaceful and civil purposes.
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Since nuclear-powered submarines require highly enriched uranium or specialized nuclear fuel regulated by this agreement, South Korea cannot proceed without explicit approval from Washington or a substantial amendment to the treaty.
Currently only six countries in the world own and operate nuclear-powered submarines, an asset with which Seoul hopes to reverse the current superiority of Pyongyang, which currently has a fleet of about 70 bathyscaphes with diesel-electric engines, almost triple that of its southern neighbor.
In Trump’s original message in Truth Social, the American president assured that “South Korea has agreed to pay the United States 350,000 million dollars (about 301,619 million euros) in exchange for a reduction in the tariffs that this country imposes on it” and also said that Seoul “has committed to purchasing large quantities of oil and gas.”
Kim Yong-beom, the South Korean chief of staff for political affairs, stated yesterday that this investment of 350,000 million dollars to set Washington’s so-called reciprocal tariffs at 15% will include an allocation of 200,000 million in cash with a limit of 20,000 million per year.
Trump also said in his message “that investments in the country by wealthy South Korean companies and businessmen will exceed $600 billion.”
With information from EFE.
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