On October 30, U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media that he had authorized South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, adding that the submarine would be built at a shipyard in Philadelphia, which was acquired by South Korea's Modern Group.
In a tweet, Trump wrote: “I have authorized them to build nuclear-powered submarines instead of the old, very low-mobility diesel submarines they now have,” adding that “typically, diesel-powered submarines need to rise regularly to recharge, while nuclear-powered submarines have superior durability and can stay underwater longer.”
The Philadelphia shipyard has now become a symbol of South-U.S. shipbuilding cooperation, and South Korea has pledged to help revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry as part of a trade agreement between the two countries.
At the same time, Trump also announced on his social media account that South Korea has agreed to pay US$350 billion in exchange for tariff exemptions and will purchase large quantities of U.S. oil and natural gas, saying that the total investment of South Korean companies will exceed US$600 billion. It is unclear how Trump calculated the total amount, but it appears to stem from South Korea's $350 billion investment commitment in the United States and other previous investment commitments by South Korean companies.
According to reports, U.S. nuclear submarine technology is considered to be one of the most sensitive and highly classified technologies in the U.S. military. The U.S. has always strictly protected this, and has previously only shared nuclear propulsion knowledge with Britain and Australia, as part of the 2021 Australian-U.S. agreement. At present, details about the scale or cooperation model of the U.S.-Korean nuclear submarine project have not been released, but Trump said on 29 that the U.S. government will share nuclear propulsion technology with South Korea to enable its navy to build at least one nuclear-powered submarine.
At the same time, Trump's announcement of the nuclear submarine construction site has raised questions: only a well-trained and skilled labor force can perform such highly professional and sensitive tasks; in addition, the shipyard's current facilities do not have the ability to process nuclear materials or build military ships. How much will it cost to completely renovate the facility and bring in workers? The feasibility of this cooperation still needs time to test.
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