South Korea is set to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines with US approval and assistance, according to a joint fact sheet last week. That approval came following a meeting at the end of October between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and US President Donald Trump in Gyeongju.
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The agreement allows South Korea to build its first nuclear-powered attack submarines, which will be conventionally armed and powered by highly enriched uranium the United States will help source. It also permits limited domestic uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing capabilities. Whether such a protocol is in compliance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons appears to be moot.
Acquiring nuclear-powered submarines with US assistance will enhance South Korea’s strategic profile and shake up the East Asian security framework, with significant implications for China in particular. Only six countries – the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and India – currently possess nuclear-powered strategic submarines. South Korea is poised to be the eighth member of the group, with Australia the seventh after it acquires its subs as part of the Aukus agreement.
South Korea’s submarine modernisation is driven in part by North Korea having nuclear weapons and reportedly working with Russia to develop its own nuclear-powered submarines, posing a direct threat to the US-led maritime security framework in the Korean peninsula and East Asia. Both South Korea and Japan rely on the US nuclear umbrella instead of having their own weapons of mass destruction, and they see Pyongyang’s growing nuclear and missile capability as a source of abiding anxiety.
East Asia has become progressively more brittle since the end of the Cold War, with various adversarial groups muddying the security dynamic. While tensions around nuclear weapons primarily revolve around the US and Russia, the discordant US-China relationship is shaping reality in the region.
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At a secondary level, the tension between the two Koreas is beyond palpable. That is in addition to the animosity lingering from Imperial Japan’s years of colonial rule and conquest in the Korean peninsula and China respectively, complicating efforts to establish more normalised ties and promote cooperation in the region.