“Our (US South Korea) military alliance is stronger than ever before and based on that I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine.”
That post by Donald Trump on Truth Social (where else) has drawn a fair degree of interest here in India.
“South Korea has a mature civil nuclear power industry so the technology and expertise is there,” Rear Admiral Monty Khanna (Retd) told StratNewsGlobal. “It is also a major ship-building and submarine building nation although until now it has only designed and built conventional submarines.
“If it starts building nuclear powered submarines, it challenges the only other nuclear player native to the region, China. To that extent, it may constrain China’s naval movement towards the Indian Ocean,” he said.
Admiral Khanna, who commissioned two submarines for the Indian Navy, also pointed to a robust Delhi-Seoul relationship: the two are special strategic partners, bilateral trade now at around $27 billion is expected to hit $50 billion by the end of the decade.
In recent years, India has emerged as a major buyer of Korean military hardware including the K9 Vajra self-propelled guns, loitering munitions and there are plans to jointly build naval and land systems.
But there are other aspects to to the US-South Korea deal that merit mention. For one, it doesn’t appear likely that the nuclear powered submarines will be built in South Korea. Check out Trump’s post on Truth Social, which says:
“South Korea will be building its Nuclear Powered Submarine in the Philadelphia Shipyard, right here in the good ol’ USA. Shipbuilding in our country will soon be making a big comeback.”
The Philadelphia shipyard is one owned by the South Korean firm Hanwha. This arrangement ensure US security agencies control the environment in which the yard operates and thereby limits the possibility of nuclear and other technologies being leaked.
The Hanwha shipyard will add to US submarine-building capacities. Currently, there are two shipyards building nuclear submarines: General Dynamics Electric Boat facility in Groton, Connecticut and Newport News in Virginia.
There are some caveats: there’s a view in South Korea that it doesn’t need nuclear submarines given that the enemy is right next door (North Korea) and conventional subs should be adequate deterrence.
The other caveat concerns Japan, which won’t be comfortable if South Korea goes nuclear. There could be pressure on Tokyo to do the same, with or without Trump’s blessings is not clear.
Finally, the US Navy brass is reportedly against the idea of handing over its nuclear “crown jewels” to a country that it considers an ally (28,000 US troops defend South Korea against North Korea), but not of the stature of the UK or Australia.
Could Trump persuade them otherwise?
Thirty eight years in journalism, widely travelled, history buff with a preference for Old Monk Rum. Current interest/focus spans China, Technology and Trade. Recent reads: Steven Colls Directorate S and Alexander Frater's Chasing the Monsoon. Netflix/Prime video junkie. Loves animal videos on Facebook. Reluctant tweeter.
