President Xi Jinping of China is welcomed to Korea by International Minister Cho Hyun upon his arrival at Gimhae Worldwide Airport in Busan on Oct. 30, 2025. (Xinhua/Yonhap)
China expressed unease about US President Donald Trump’s Thursday put up on Reality Social that he had given South Korea the inexperienced gentle to construct a nuclear-powered submarine.
“Our Navy Alliance [with Korea] is stronger than ever earlier than and, based mostly on that, I’ve given them approval to construct a Nuclear Powered Submarine, somewhat than the old school, and much much less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they’ve now,” the US president wrote.
Trump was responding to Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s public request the day earlier than for Trump to permit Korea to buy gasoline for nuclear-powered submarines.
China instantly shot again by urging Korea and the US to “fulfill their nuclear non-proliferation obligations.”
Since Korea is about to carry a summit with Chinese language President Xi Jinping, who arrived in Korea on Thursday for his first state go to in 11 years, the Korean authorities is left to grapple with this difficult concern.
“China hopes that the ROK [i.e., South Korea] and the US will earnestly fulfill their nuclear non-proliferation obligations and do what’s conducive to regional peace and stability, not in any other case,” Chinese language International Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun stated in an everyday briefing on Thursday.
Guo additionally confused that China has been a constantly dependable guardian of regional peace and welfare, strolling the trail of peaceable growth and sustaining a neighborly overseas coverage and an completely defensive coverage on nationwide protection.
Since Korea is just not a nuclear-weapon state, creating and working nuclear-powered submarines would require cooperation from the US, which leads the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a corporation that controls exports of nuclear gasoline. Korea would even have to influence worldwide organizations such because the Worldwide Atomic Power Company to confirm that its nuclear-powered submarines weren’t a violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT.
Underneath these circumstances, China’s remarks about Korea and the US “fulfilling their nuclear non-proliferation obligations” and “doing what’s conducive to regional peace and stability” include a twofold message: that Korean development of nuclear-powered submarines could be in violation of the NPT, and that such an effort may elevate army tensions within the area.
China’s hackles are raised by the likelihood that possession of nuclear-powered submarines may combine South Korea extra totally within the US’ technique of containing China.
In his summit with the US on Thursday, Lee argued that Korean nuclear-powered submarines had been wanted to scale back the burden on the US army. “Since diesel submarines are poor at underwater motion, they’d be restricted of their capability to trace North Korean or Chinese language submarines,” the South Korean president stated.
Whereas Lee later downplayed his reference to “Chinese language submarines” by claiming he had not meant to single out the submarines of any specific nation, the comment inevitably put China on its guard.
Guo’s emphasis on normal ideas and his use of the tactful phrase “hopes” within the press convention could sign that Xi needs to debate the difficulty with out spoiling the temper in his state go to to Korea and summit with Lee.
“In mentioning the ‘nonproliferation’ precept, China was voicing misgivings about Korea siding totally with the US in its strategic rivalry with China. For a Chinese language viewers, Korea must clarify that nuclear-powered submarines can be supposed to function deterrence in opposition to North Korea and take steps to marginalize requires nuclear armament or nuclear latency within the home market,” emphasised Lee Sang-kyu, the chief analyst for nuclear safety on the Korea Institute for Protection Analyses.
By Park Min-hee, senior employees author; Jang Ye-ji, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
