Copyright timesnownews
President Trump has announced the US will closely share nuclear submarine technology with South Korea, following discussions with President Lee Jae Myung. The submarine will be built in a Philadelphia shipyard, where South Korean firms have increased investment, Trump wrote on social media. "South Korea has agreed to pay the USA 350 Billion Dollars for a lowering of the Tariff’s charged against them by the United States. Additionally, they have agreed to buy our Oil and Gas in vast quantities, and investments into our Country by wealthy South Korean Companies and Businessmen will exceed 600 Billion Dollars," Trump said on Truth Social. "Our Military Alliance is stronger than ever before and, based on that, I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine, rather than the old fashioned, and far less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they have now. A great trip, with a great President of South Korea!" he added. President Lee Jae Myung stressed to Trump in their Wednesday meeting that the goal was to modernise the alliance with the US, noting plans to increase military spending to reduce the financial burden on America. The South Korean leader said there might have been a misunderstanding when they last spoke in August about nuclear-powered submarines, saying that his government was looking for nuclear fuel rather than weapons. Move to counter North Korea, China? Lee said that South Korea's current diesel-powered submarines have limits in tracking other countries' submarine activities. If South Korea was equipped with nuclear-powered submarines, he said, it could help US activities in the region. But the timing of the move is crucial. Trump's post comes ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country possesses nuclear submarines, and after North Korea in March unveiled for the first time a nuclear-powered submarine under construction. It is a weapons system that can pose a major security threat to South Korea and the US. When it comes to the US, the nation's nuclear submarine technology is widely regarded as some of the most sensitive and highly guarded technology the military possesses. The US has been incredibly protective of that knowledge, and even a recently announced deal with close allies the United Kingdom and Australia to help the latter acquire nuclear submarine technology doesn't feature the US directly transferring its knowledge. Diesel-powered submarines have to surface regularly to recharge their batteries. But nuclear-powered submarines have superior endurance and can stay submerged for a significantly longer period. (With AP inputs)
