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| Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea speaks during a debate hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Jun Ji-hye
Leading presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Thursday the nation needs nuclear submarines.
Toward that end, he vowed to revise the nuclear cooperation deal between South Korea and the United States, if elected, so the nation can purchase the U.S. ingredients that can be used to make nuclear fuel.
"We need nuclear submarines in this era," he said during a debate hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club, noting that using nuclear fuel as a power source only is not against international agreements.
"The problem is we need to purchase the ingredients from the U.S. to turn into nuclear fuel, but the current Seoul-Washington nuclear cooperation deal does now allow this," he said.
Moon's comment referred to the deal, revised in 2015, which allows Seoul to enrich uranium to a level of 20 percent when using U.S. ingredients, but disallows uranium enrichment for military purposes.
"If elected president, I will discuss the revision of this deal with the U.S," Moon said.
In 2003, the Roh Moo-hyun government, for which Moon served as presidential chief of staff, secretly pushed for building the nation's own nuclear submarines and deploying three by 2020. But this plan was dropped the year after it was leaked to the media and caused protests from neighboring countries.
Calls for developing nuclear subs were reignited last year mostly by conservative politicians after North Korea successfully launched a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from underwater in April of that year.
They said the only way to counter the North's SLBM threat would be for Seoul to have its own nuclear submarine to strike the North's submarine before it launches a missile.
Supporters say nuclear submarines do not have to surface frequently as they are powered by a nuclear reactor, making it difficult for the enemy to detect them. Moreover, they can operate at high speeds for long periods of time.
But critics raised the question of whether the U.S., which virtually controls the uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel reprocessing of South Korea, would approve of Seoul's uranium enrichment activity to operate a nuclear sub.
Although a nuclear sub is not armed with nuclear weapons but only uses nuclear fuel as a power source, the development can still provoke controversy over whether or not the South Korean government is giving up the 1992 inter-Korean denuclearization declaration.
Earlier, South Korea ratified the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1975 and has remained formally committed to it since then.
