Nuclear submarines: South Korea's new trump card.
South Korea becoming the seventh country in the world to operate nuclear-powered submarines – alongside the US, Russia, China, France, the UK, and India – could be considered an achievement.
According to CNN, South Korea wants to join the group of countries with powerful navies, and this has been welcomed and encouraged by US President Donald Trump.
This also helps activate the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet, allowing them to focus resources on "hot spots" such as the South China Sea and the waters around Taiwan.
On both sides of the Pacific, building these ships could create thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs, boosting the economies of both the United States and South Korea.
Yu Jihoon, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis and a former submarine officer, stated: "Nuclear submarines could elevate South Korea's role in the alliance, making it a more capable security partner. Therefore, the strategic implications for the U.S.-South Korea alliance are even more significant."
However, as is often the case in the military shipbuilding industry, the real difficulties only emerge when it comes to detailed operational testing.
Nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSNs) possess a number of significant advantages. They are capable of remaining submerged for extended periods – theoretically for years, provided the crew has sufficient supplies. In contrast, most conventional submarines must surface to obtain oxygen for their diesel engines, which are then used to recharge their batteries for continued underwater travel.
In addition, nuclear submarines are generally faster and, in many cases, operate more quietly than traditional submarines. Acquiring this type of equipment has been a decades-long aspiration of the South Korean government.
However, Seoul faces a key hurdle: under a decades-old nuclear agreement with the U.S., South Korea is not permitted to reprocess spent nuclear fuel, even though it possesses the technology to do so.
South Korean officials have discussed this issue with previous U.S. administrations, but all discussions took place behind closed doors.
Therefore, when South Korean President Lee Jae Myung publicly mentioned the government's decades-long desire for the U.S. to lift the embargo during his direct talks with President Donald Trump in late October, many were taken by surprise.
Immediately following President Lee's request, President Trump appeared to nod in approval. On the social media platform Truth Social, he wrote: "I have approved them to build nuclear-powered submarines, replacing their old diesel-powered vessels, which are far less versatile than what they currently possess."
