On this undated photograph offered Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean authorities, its chief Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear-powered submarine beneath building at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Unbiased journalists weren’t given entry to cowl the occasion depicted on this picture distributed by the North Korean authorities. The content material of this picture is as offered and can’t be independently verified. Korean language watermark on picture as offered by supply reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central Information Company.
AP/KCNA by way of KNS
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SEOUL, South Korea — An arms race for nuclear-powered submarines is accelerating between North and South Korea amid shifts in the US’ safety technique within the area.
North Korea’s state media revealed on Thursday an image of what it known as a “8,700-ton nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine.” It is the primary time North Korea disclosed the tonnage and the apparently accomplished hull of the submarine because it declared its pursuit for nuclear subs in 2021.
North Korean chief Kim Jong Un mentioned that the brand new vessel will assist defend his nation in opposition to “the adverse safety scenario that has come as current actuality,” in accordance with the nation’s state media. Kim criticized South Korea’s plan to construct its personal nuclear subs as “an offensive act … that have to be countered.”
South Korea has moved shortly to construct its personal nuclear subs, since receiving President Trump’s approval in October. A pan-government process pressure launched final week in Seoul, whereas the nation’s nationwide safety adviser Wi Sung-lac mentioned South Korea will work on a pact for the U.S. to provide it with military-use nuclear gasoline.
The inexperienced mild for South Korea’s underwater ambitions got here because the U.S. pushes its allies to shoulder extra of their very own safety burden and spend extra to beef up protection capabilities.
South Korea has sought to construct nuclear subs for many years in opposition to North Korea’s nuclear threats, which shortly expanded to the maritime sphere lately. Along with making the nuclear-powered submarine, it has examined submarine-launched nuclear missiles and claimed to have developed a nuclear-capable torpedo.
South Korea’s protection minister, Ahn Gyu-back, mentioned in October that standard, diesel-powered subs “cannot compete with nuclear subs North Korea is constructing in underwater endurance and velocity.”
U.S. expects subs to assist counter China
The U.S. expects future South Korean nuclear subs to do extra within the area than countering North Korea. Admiral Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations of the U.S. Navy, mentioned throughout his go to in Seoul in November that it is “a pure expectation” that they be used “to fulfill our mixed targets on what the US considers to be our pacing menace, which is China.”
On this undated photograph offered Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, by the North Korean authorities, its chief Kim Jong Un, third left, visits a shipyard as he inspects a nuclear-powered submarine beneath building at an undisclosed location in North Korea. Unbiased journalists weren’t given entry to cowl the occasion depicted on this picture distributed by the North Korean authorities. The content material of this picture is as offered and can’t be independently verified. Korean language watermark on picture as offered by supply reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central Information Company. (Korean Central Information Company/Korea Information Service by way of AP)
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AP/KCNA by way of KNS
South Korea President Lee Jae Myung appeared to make a nod to that expectation, with a uncommon point out of China throughout his October summit with Trump. “The restricted underwater vary of diesel submarines restricts our capability to trace subs on the North Korean or Chinese language facet,” he mentioned.
Yoon Sukjoon, a retired South Korean navy captain, tells NPR that it is a “given” that South Korean nuclear subs will function in a wider underwater area past the Korean Peninsula.
Yoon says the waters across the peninsula are too shallow for submarine operations. “But when the South Korean Navy expands its nuclear submarine operations to China,” he says, “it may possibly contribute some strategic deterrence in opposition to the Chinese language Navy’s threats within the Indo-Pacific.”
However South Korea has been cautious of suggesting army confrontation with China — its largest buying and selling accomplice, as China additionally quickly expands its navy. President Lee’s workplace later mentioned that his remarks to Trump “merely referred to submarines close to our waters towards the route of the North and China,” not vessels belonging to sure nations.
The federal government’s cautious stance displays the perspective of the South Korean public, of whom a majority says South Korea should stay impartial ought to a severe battle erupt between the U.S. and China, in accordance with a latest survey.
“Entry level towards a a lot greater objective”
However South Korea — and Japan, which has signaled willingness to develop nuclear-powered submarines — can also be involved about China’s rising sphere of affect and doesn’t wish to fall beneath it, says Kim Heungkyu, a political scientist and director of the China Coverage Institute at Ajou College.
Because the U.S. shifts its protection focus nearer to house, he says, its allies are rising more and more distrustful of its safety dedication in Asia.
In a ballot by the non-public assume tank Asan Institute from March, lower than half of Koreans mentioned they imagine the U.S. would reply with nuclear weapons if North Korea assaults the South with one. In the meantime, a majority of South Koreans mentioned they assist nuclear armament, even at the price of worldwide sanctions or withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“In a brand new worldwide order with out the U.S. within the Western Pacific, South Korea wants a survival technique based mostly on nuclear weapons,” says Kim. And, he provides, nuclear-powered submarines would permit the nation an “entry level towards a a lot greater objective” of nuclear armament.
The South Korean authorities, which is individually pursuing entry to enriching uranium and reprocessing spent gasoline in talks with the U.S., has denied that it needs to go nuclear.
However Kim says the Trump administration is “pushing South Korea and Japan towards the route of nuclear armament, whether or not it intends or not.”
NPR’s Anthony Kuhn contributed to this report in Seoul.
