The United States is unlikely to assist South Korea in building nuclear-powered submarines at present, as it is heavily committed to its AUKUS obligations with Australia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated at the Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore.
In 2021, the United States signed the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia, agreeing to share nuclear-powered submarine technology and sell at least three Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s.
This agreement has garnered interest from several allies, including South Korea.
When asked at the security summit how he would respond to a direct South Korean request for help in obtaining nuclear submarines, Austin said it would be “very, very difficult” for Washington to accommodate such a request given its current commitments.
“(AUKUS) is no small endeavour,” he emphasized. “We just started down this path with Australia.
“(It’s) highly doubtful that we could take on another initiative of this type anytime in the near future.”
The two-stage security pact aims to counter China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
This will be the first time Washington has shared nuclear-propulsion technology since it did so with Britain in the 1950s.
The pact includes a second technology-sharing “pillar” that has attracted interest from New Zealand and Japan.
“We believe that AUKUS is actually a good addition to regional security,” New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday.
She added that New Zealand had inquired about the second pillar but had not received an invitation to join.
“We’ve had no actual invitation to join it but it is something that we are certainly looking at,” she noted.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles mentioned that while he could foresee other countries’ involvement in the future, the current focus is on the U.S.-UK-Australia trio successfully implementing their submarine projects, which are set to span decades.