More nuke subs

Seoul in talks to buy military hardware due to Pyongyang threat

South Korea wants to buy nuclear subs from the United States.

SEOUL: South Korea is negotiating with the United States to buy nuclear-powered submarines to guard against threats from Pyongyang, local reports said, as President Donald Trump said Seoul would buy “billions of dollars” of US weapons.

Nuclear-powered submarines can stay submerged for months, giving them a far greater range than their diesel-powered counterparts, and are also crucial to any seaborne nuclear deterrent.

Such a purchase would redraw the balance of power in North-East Asia and could trigger a regional arms race.

Japan – another US ally – does not have nuclear-powered submarines and is barred from having a military under its post-World War II pacifist constitution.

And while China’s increasingly powerful navy does include them in its fleet, Beijing would undoubtedly be infuriated by any such acquisition by Seoul.

After a summit in South Korea with his counterpart Moon Jae-in, Trump said yesterday that Seoul would be buying a large amount of US weapons “whether it’s planes, whether it’s missiles, no matter what it is”.

“South Korea will be ordering billions of dollars of that equipment, which for them makes a lot of sense and for us it means jobs, reducing our trade deficit with South Korea,” he said.

While Moon did not give specific details of the purchases, he described them as essential for national defence.

Multiple South Korean media outlets said the two leaders ordered officials to begin the purchase talks “immediately”, citing a senior official who gave an anonymous briefing.

“The strategic assets under discussion include a nuclear-powered submarine and a sophisticated surveillance asset,” the reports quoted a senior official of Moon’s office as saying.

“We will have close consultations with the United States about these two in the future.”

Seoul heavily relies on its security guarantor Washington, which has 28,500 troops stationed in the South, for national defence to protect itself against potential attacks by the nuclear-armed North Korea. — AFP

Reaching out to youths: US First Lady Melania Trump and Choi Min-ho, a member of South Korean boy band Shinee, waving at South Korean middle school students during the Girls Play 2! Initiative, an Olympic public diplomacy outreach campaign, at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Seoul. — AFP