South Korea, explained.
South Korean diesel submarines, such as the Sohn Won-yil-class Ahn Jung-Geun, cannot keep up with a nuclear-powered boat (Ethan Lambert/US Navy Photo)
Another Trump statement that poses a whole lot of unanswered questions.
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The mystery of South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarinesThe mystery of South Korea’s nuclear-powered submarines
We’re used to applying an instant mental discount to anything US President Donald Trump says, either because he’s uninformed about the subject he’s making confident declarations about, or because whatever he says today could be contradicted by a statement made with equal self-assurance tomorrow.
Yesterday’s statement on Truth Social stating that the US will help South Korea build nuclear-powered submarines is a case in point.
US President Donald Trump with South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung at the Gyeongju National Museum, and an insert of Trump’s Truth Social post (Daniel Torok/White House Photo)
It will be impossible to make complete sense of the statement until we hear more details from both sides, so for the moment, here are some sources which raise various questions and issues:
My sense was that AUKUS envy had less to do with hardware than with relationships. As in: “How come the Americans trust you guys with this technology, but not us?”
In Seoul last year, I met with various South Korean analysts, think tankers and academics, and came away with a sense that South Korea was suffering AUKUS envy. At the time, I didn’t attribute this primarily to the fact that Australia was getting nuclear-powered submarines and South Korea wasn’t. Sure, there have long been advocates for such vessels in South Korea, but my sense was that AUKUS envy had less to do with hardware than with relationships. As in: “How come the Americans trust you guys with this technology, but not us?”
There’s so much we still don’t know about this agreement, but it appears that South Koreans didn’t need to be so jealous. Japan will surely now be thinking that they too can be trusted, and that they do not want to be left behind.
About the author
Sam Roggeveen
Sam Roggeveen is Program Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace (Opens in new window), published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.
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