{"id":31138,"date":"2026-05-27T02:38:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/31138\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:38:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:38:06","slug":"south-korea-eyes-first-nuclear-submarine-by-mid-2030s-but-hurdles-run-deep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/31138\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea eyes first nuclear submarine by mid-2030s, but hurdles run deep"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/south-korea?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">South Korea<\/a>\u2019s drive to acquire its first nuclear-powered submarines is moving back up President <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/lee-jae-myung?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lee Jae Myung<\/a>\u2019s defence agenda, but analysts say delayed US consultations, non-proliferation concerns and budget pressures still stand in the way.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Lee on Tuesday urged faster efforts to secure the submarines, describing them as core strategic assets for the country\u2019s future defence capabilities.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe need to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence and drone technologies, while speeding up the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines, which are core strategic assets for future defence capabilities,\u201d Lee said during a meeting with defence officials.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He described the envisioned submarines as \u201ca symbol of our will to take responsibility for peace and security on the Korean peninsula\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The comments come as Allison Hooker, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, is expected to lead an inter-agency delegation to Seoul in the coming weeks to launch bilateral working groups aimed at implementing agreements reached at last year\u2019s summit between Lee and US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Those agreements included US cooperation on Seoul\u2019s plan to build nuclear-powered submarines \u2013 a long-sought capability that would allow South Korea\u2019s navy to remain under water much longer than its diesel-powered fleet but would also require sensitive arrangements over nuclear fuel and safeguards.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back briefed Lee on a government plan to launch the country\u2019s first nuclear-powered submarine by the mid-2030s \u2013 a move that could reshape Asia\u2019s security landscape and add to concerns over regional military competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korea\u2019s drive to acquire its first nuclear-powered submarines is moving back up President Lee Jae Myung\u2019s defence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1329,20199,426,74,7519,19754,114,171,5280,146,325,20200,20198,34,20201,33],"class_list":["post-31138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-ahn-gyu-back","tag-allison-hooker","tag-coupang","tag-donald-trump","tag-hanyang-university","tag-international-atomic-energy-agency","tag-iran","tag-korean","tag-korean-peninsula","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-middle-east","tag-ministry-of-national-defence","tag-moon-geun-sik","tag-north-korea","tag-philadelphia","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}