South Korea's submarine nuclear program has been put on the agenda.
According to reports from the U.S. website "The War Zone," South Korea officially unveiled its roadmap for nuclear submarine development on the 26th. The first nuclear-powered submarine is scheduled to be launched in the mid-2030s and will achieve combat capability by the late 2030s.
The rapid advancement of this plan clearly cannot proceed without the support and tolerance from the United States. Moreover, compared to the "AUKUS" agreement that lured Australia into a similar arrangement, South Korea’s nuclear submarine initiative appears significantly more credible: the submarines and their reactors will be built domestically by South Korea, while enriched uranium fuel will be sourced from the United States—ensuring the project won’t be hindered by America’s already strained defense production capacity.
Nevertheless, regardless of how much emphasis South Korea places on upholding its nuclear non-proliferation obligations, the act of building nuclear submarines itself constitutes nuclear proliferation. At the same time, South Korea has long sought to acquire nuclear weapons.
Analysis from "The War Zone" website also points out that if the sole purpose were to respond to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s existing conventional submarine force already holds a clear advantage. Its newly developed diesel-electric submarines, equipped with submarine-launched ballistic missiles, are capable of delivering a second-strike capability against North Korea. In terms of homeland defense, nuclear submarines are, to some extent, an overkill—thus, South Korea’s real intent behind pursuing nuclear submarines may ostensibly target North Korea, but in reality aims to strengthen its so-called deterrent capability against China.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1866324444355657/
Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.