US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung shake fingers throughout a ceremony on the Gyeongju Nationwide Museum in North Gyeongsang Province on Oct. 29, 2025. (AP/Yonhap)
After South Korea reached a broad settlement with the US on protection points, together with the pursuit of a nuclear submarine and revision of the South Korea-US nuclear vitality settlement, at their summit subsequent week, Seoul now faces the duty of figuring out all of the finer particulars of the deal.
Many consider that that is merely the beginning of a prolonged interval of negotiations, as most of those agreements will in the end require approval from the US Congress.
Kang Hoon-sik, the South Korean presidential chief of employees, mentioned the actual fact sheet on the finalized South Korea-US commerce negotiations and safety agreements may come as early as this week.
“The very fact sheet is predicted to be accomplished this week as there are not any main variations between the 2 nations,” Kang informed reporters at a press briefing on the Yongsan presidential workplace on Monday.
Instantly after the summit, the presidential workplace estimated that it might take two to 3 days for the official reality sheet to be launched. Nonetheless, a number of sources with information of the drafting course of mentioned that the method has taken extra time on account of US President Donald Trump giving Korea the inexperienced mild to construct a nuclear submarine the day after the summit, requiring further content material to be added to the doc.
It’s price noting that when Lee requested US approval for the availability of nuclear gas for a nuclear submarine throughout the summit on Wednesday, Trump failed to present a right away reply to the request, solely saying that he authorised South Korea’s building of nuclear-propelled submarines at a shipyard in Philadelphia.
South Korea’s presidential workplace has confused that each one goes in response to plan.
“Relating to gas for the nuclear [submarines], that solely requires the president’s approval, which President Trump has already given,” the workplace informed reporters.
Kang defined that the approval was secured after South Korea persuaded China and the US that it was not meaning to “begin an arms race or heighten tensions in East Asia, however to make applicable preparations and countermeasures following North Korea’s unveiling of its nuclear submarine.” The suggestion is that since Seoul has the blessing of each the US and China, its push for a nuclear submarine will achieve momentum going ahead.
The consensus amongst overseas affairs consultants, nevertheless, is that even as soon as a reality sheet addressing all of those points is printed, South Korea nonetheless has an extended, tough highway forward of it.
As its identify suggests, a reality sheet is a short summarization of the discussions held between the 2 international locations. Any reality sheet put out by the US and Korea will solely comprise the broad framework of talks, with language like “The 2 events have agreed to increase nuclear cooperation,” and “South Korea and the US will work in the direction of constructing nuclear-powered submarines.”
It is going to be on the idea of such a doc that the 2 international locations might want to get right down to enterprise figuring out the main points of their association in follow-up consultations. With delicate points like the place the submarines might be constructed and the switch of expertise and the availability of nuclear gas up for dialogue, negotiations are anticipated to be exacting.
“Approval from the US Division of Vitality or a revision to the nuclear settlement is required if civilian nuclear gas is transformed to navy use. We’ll nonetheless want to carry talks on the technical and administrative ranges,” a presidential workplace official mentioned.
On this context, Australia, which signed an settlement with the US to obtain nuclear-powered submarines armed with standard weapons, serves as an vital reference level. Australia signed the AUKUS safety pact, which included such provisions, in September 2021 with the US and the UK. Nonetheless, as institutional and technical evaluations throughout the US authorities drag on, negotiations have but to be finalized.
Even when the US Division of Vitality have been to grant approval with no fuss, South Korea will nonetheless should face the ultimate hurdle of the US Congress. If Congress opposes the revision of the South Korea-US nuclear vitality settlement and the development of nuclear submarines, it will likely be the tip of the highway for Seoul’s push.
“We all know which route we need to go in, however figuring out the specifics will inevitably take time. Congressional diplomacy and different efforts will doubtless develop into essential going ahead,” a authorities supply commented.
By Search engine optimization Younger-ji, employees reporter
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