【By Observer Net, Wang Yi】Two weeks have passed since the U.S.-South Korea summit, but the two countries have not yet released a joint situation statement reflecting the results of trade and security negotiations, which has raised suspicions. Some voices speculate that the main reason for the delay is that the United States is unwilling to transfer sensitive technologies for building nuclear-powered submarines to South Korea.

SBS TV's exclusive report on November 12 seems to confirm this theory. The media revealed that the memorandum and fact list, which were expected to be announced soon, were postponed due to internal disagreements in the U.S. American Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick requested the removal of terms related to "spent fuel reprocessing" and "uranium enrichment" from the fact list.

The report mentioned that Korean People's Power Party National Assembly member Kim Young-bae had previously mentioned "Lutnick's inflexible behavior" on a television program, which has now been confirmed to refer to this matter.

It is known that Lutnick's side argued that these issues were not sufficiently discussed at the level of the heads of state of the two countries, and therefore should be removed from the document. However, he did not object to the statement in the fact list that "South Korea is responsible for the construction of the submarine hull and reactor, while the United States provides packaged nuclear fuel to South Korea."

SBS TV analyzed that Lutnick's objection to issues such as "spent fuel reprocessing" may be closely related to America's commercial interests in the civil nuclear power sector and the revision of the U.S.-South Korea Atomic Energy Agreement.

In August this year, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung visited the U.S. and attended the U.S.-South Korea Business Roundtable with American Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. IC Photo

The U.S.-South Korea Atomic Energy Agreement, signed in 1974, was a nuclear energy cooperation agreement between South Korea and the U.S., initially prohibiting South Korea from uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, requiring approval from the U.S. before conducting relevant nuclear activities. The agreement was originally scheduled to expire in 2014, but due to differences over uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, the two countries finally signed a revised agreement in 2015.

The revised agreement mainly made changes to three aspects: spent fuel management, nuclear fuel supply, and nuclear power plant exports. It no longer explicitly restricted South Korea from uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing, and its validity extended until 2035. This year, the South Korean government pushed for a new round of revision negotiations, requesting to ease the restrictions on uranium enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing in the current agreement, and proposed to delete the clause excluding military purposes, creating conditions for building nuclear-powered submarines.

At the U.S.-South Korea summit held in late October, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung requested the U.S. to provide nuclear fuel needed for nuclear-powered submarines, to enhance the combat capability of South Korean submarines. President Trump did not directly respond to Lee's request at the time, but on October 30, he posted on social media that the U.S. would share nuclear propulsion technology with South Korea to help the South Korean Navy build at least one nuclear-powered submarine.

At that time, Yonhap News Agency pointed out that this was the first time the South Korean government officially announced its intention to introduce nuclear-powered submarines. The JoongAng Daily stated that when South Korea announced a specific weapons plan, it explicitly mentioned a specific country other than North Korea, which was an extremely rare statement. This indicated that the Lee administration was willing to join the U.S. "balancing China" activities at the cost of some price.

Afterward, the South Korean government tried to downplay Lee's remarks. On November 3, Park Hoon-jong, Director of the Presidential Secretariat, said that South Korea's pursuit of building nuclear-powered submarines was not to promote a "military arms race," and that South Korea had assured both China and the U.S. that building nuclear submarines was to "respond to North Korea's nuclear submarine plan."

Analysts warned that South Korea's decision could negatively affect Sino-South Korean relations. Professor Ju Jae-woo of Kyung Hee University said that when South Korea decided to deploy the U.S. "THAAD" anti-missile system in 2016, bilateral relations were severely damaged, and "the THAAD issue remains an obstacle to the relationship between the two countries." Therefore, South Korea's plan to build nuclear-powered submarines might further intensify tensions with China.

Last month, Korean military commentator and former Justice Party legislator Kim Jong-dae also openly stated on social media that the idea of building nuclear submarines was merely a "nationalistic vanity" caused by the illusion of great powers, and that South Korea "would only gain face, but lose money, time, and diplomatic autonomy."

He warned that the submarine project would become an "ability trap" that South Korea could not handle at all levels of finance, politics, and industry, "each submarine investment exceeds 2 trillion won, and we can only operate one, not to mention that it will take several years to build and revise the agreement."

Kim Jong-dae also mentioned that the nuclear fuel for nuclear submarines would have to rely on U.S. highly enriched uranium, and the construction technology and maintenance would likely fall under the control system of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, "once we beg for fuel to get nuclear submarines, the foundation of independent defense policy will collapse on its own."

Furthermore, he warned that possessing nuclear submarines would not enhance South Korea's strategic position, but could instead escalate the situation in Northeast Asia.

Regarding the discussion between South Korea and the U.S. on nuclear-powered submarines, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jianjun said on October 30 that China had noticed the situation. China hopes that the U.S. and South Korea will fulfill their nuclear non-proliferation obligations and do things that promote regional peace and stability, rather than the opposite.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer Net. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7571857857683997236/

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