South Korea Plans First Nuclear-Powered Submarine Launch by Mid-2030s

South Korea will seek to launch its first nuclear-powered submarine by the mid-2030s under a new program aimed at countering North Korea's submarine-launched nuclear and missile threats, officials said Tuesday. The submarine will use low-enriched uranium fuel and be developed and built in South Korea, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said.

The program will draw on South Korea's nuclear, shipbuilding and defense industries.

Korea will work closely with the United States during the process of securing low-enriched uranium fuel to ensure nonproliferation and will also work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ahn said. U.S. alliance, is a symbol of our will to take responsibility for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula," President Lee Jae Myung told a committee examining the country's future defense strategy.

Nuclear propulsion would give the new submarines the ability to stay underwater far longer and ensure greater mobility than existing South Korean submarines, the government has said. 6%, respectively, after Lee highlighted the importance of the project in a Cabinet meeting. The plan aims for the first vessel to be launched in the mid-2030s, Ahn said.