From nuclear submarines to trade, South Korea and US remain deadlocked ahead of talks

South Korea and the United States are heading into talks in Seoul next week with different priorities over the implementation of last year’s summit agreement, with President Lee Jae Myung pushing for the supply of nuclear-powered submarines and Washington seeking progress on a major investment pledge by the Lee administration. US approval on the use of nuclear fuel for South Korea’s submarines is a key goal for Lee, while Washington wants Seoul’s US$350 billion investment promise it previously made in return for a lower tariff rate to be high up on the agenda, according to analysts. President Donald Trump has said the submarines should be manufactured at shipyards in Philadelphia, backed by the South Korean conglomerate Hanwha. However, Lee has insisted that South Korea should be responsible for building the submarines. South Korea was planning to launch its first nuclear-powered submarine by the middle of the 2030s, officials said on Tuesday. It is reportedly looking to build submarines with a displacement of 8,000 tonnes, similar to the US Virginia-class submarines. The US also wants South Korea to play a more active role in countering China’s growing influence as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy. The two sides also remain far apart on whether South Korea could deter North Korea on its own, a prerequisite for it to take full wartime operational control (OPCON) for its military from the South Korea-US Joint Forces Command, currently led by a US four-star general who oversees 28,500 American and South Korean troops. South Korea is seeking to gain control before Lee’s five-year term ends in 2030, amid speculation that Seoul is targeting to do so by 2028. The US, however, reportedly favours a more cautious timeline tied to South Korea’s military readiness. Speaking at a military conference in Hawaii on Wednesday, US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson said he was concerned by “the potential to be driven to do something that we are not ready for”. At a Senate hearing in April, Brunson said “political expediency does not outpace the conditions” for the OPCON transfer. He also told Congress that the two countries were seeking a transfer no later than the first quarter of 2029. Gaps are likely to be exposed through this first round of negotiations Doo Jin-ho, Eurasia Centre director Doo Jin-ho, director of the Eurasia Centre at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said: “The two allies have different priorities as they head for the table. Gaps are likely to be exposed through this first round of negotiations.” The meeting, initially planned for early this year, was delayed by six months as the US became preoccupied with the Middle East conflict and other regional matters. Washington has raised concerns over delays in Seoul’s legislative approval of its investment pledge, and an ongoing investigation into American e-commerce giant Coupang over a massive data breach in South Korea in November, which exposed the personal details of more than half of the country’s population. “Had it been delayed further, the momentum for implementing last year’s summit agreement might have been seriously weakened,” Doo said. The meeting, scheduled to take place in Seoul on Tuesday and Wednesday, would focus on implementing the security commitments outlined after the summit between Lee and Trump in October, South Korea’s foreign ministry said. First Vice-Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo will lead South Korea’s delegation, including officials from the presidential office and the defence, science and industry ministries. The US delegation, to be led by Allison Hooker, US under secretary of state for political affairs, will include officials from the White House National Security Council, the Department of State, the Department of Energy and other agencies. Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said of the coming talks: “We aim to revise our civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the US as soon as possible to enable uranium enrichment and spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, while also accelerating cooperation in nuclear-powered submarines and the shipbuilding field.” To manufacture fuel for nuclear-powered submarines, Seoul would need to amend its bilateral agreement with Washington governing the peaceful use of fissile material. South Korea is currently prohibited from enriching uranium or reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Asked whether there was a shared understanding with the US on revising the nuclear agreement, Cho said bilateral consultations had proceeded smoothly, even though US officials and Congress had voiced concerns over nuclear proliferation risks. “South Korea is a major global trading nation, and our conventional military capabilities are quite advanced, so I do not think they assess that we are trying to pursue independent nuclear armament,” Cho told the Yonhap News Agency on Thursday. “To address such concerns, I met with US senators during my visit to Washington in February and sent explanatory documents outlining our position.” On Seoul’s reportedly slow progress to carry out its investment pledge and the Coupang investigation, Cho said both matters had been “handled well”, and concerns over any negative impact were “largely resolved”. Baek Seung-joo, professor emeritus at Kookmin University and a former vice-defence minister, said Washington would be expected to fulfil its promise to Seoul on submarine construction and the nuclear fuel issue after the end of the ongoing Middle East war. On the other hand, Trump is under pressure to turn investment commitments from South Korea, Japan and other countries into tangible results ahead of the US midterm election in November, according to Baek. “Time is on South Korea’s side,” he added. Another issue that would likely be raised at the talks was the resumption of US intelligence-sharing with South Korea, Baek said. The US has reportedly restricted intelligence-sharing with South Korea following a suspected leak of classified information provided by Washington on North Korea’s nuclear sites. Unification Minister Chung Dong-young spoke about the nuclear sites during a parliamentary session in April. Moon Chung-in, distinguished professor at Yonsei University, said Trump and Lee appeared aligned on the OPCON transfer, with the US praising South Korea as a model ally for committing to increasing defence spending to five per cent of its government budget. However, Seoul’s push to acquire nuclear-powered submarines is expected to continue generating domestic opposition due to their high costs and feasibility, according to Moon. He said each submarine would cost at least 4 trillion won (US$2.65 billion), and South Korea could be building up to four submarines. South Korea was already operating a modern fleet of diesel-powered submarines capable of deterring North Korea’s relatively weak navy, while there was a global trend to deploy unmanned underwater drones and other autonomous maritime weapons systems, Moon added. “Once a concrete agreement with the United States is in place, the need for this country to acquire the expensive weapons would be called into question.”

From nuclear submarines to trade, South Korea and US remain deadlocked ahead of talks

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The two allies are also expected to discuss the transfer of military control and a data breach involving a US firm at their talks next week

The two allies are also expected to discuss the transfer of military control and a data breach involving a US firm at their talks next week