Following the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the Moon Jae-in administration's promotion of nuclear submarines has been in the foreign press for a long time, holding back the declaration of an end to the war for muscle growth.
The New York Times on the 13th said, "The small modular nuclear power plant (SMR) for marine use built in Gyeongju, South Korea can be used for the development of Korean nuclear submarines. Korea has long wanted nuclear submarines." I can open the door."
Naval News, a U.S. maritime and military media, said, "The introduction of Korea's first nuclear-powered submarine is getting closer and closer" in connection with the construction of the 70 MW-class multi-purpose small reactor 'ARA' by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute. Regarding the KSS-Ⅲ submarine (83.5 m in length and 9.6 m in width based on Layout-I), “it is large compared to non-nuclear submarines” and “it may be possible to mount a nuclear reactor in a way that replaces the AIP area” ,” said submarine expert HI Sutton.
AIP is the second-size 3600-ton class submarine, which uses lithium-ion batteries for diesel engines and lead-acid batteries, and the power source for the largest 4,000-ton class submarine has not been announced.
The Moon Jae-in government is pushing to increase armaments by securing three 3,000-ton class submarines (KSS-III Batch-I), 3600-ton class (Batch-II), and 4,000-ton class (Batch-Ⅲ), which are Dosan Anchang ships.
The Roh Moo-hyun administration's arms increase was a French low-enriched uranium fuel-using 'Barracuda' (Chiffran)-class (4,700-ton) submarine in the '362 Project', a nuclear submarine introduction project that had been secretly pursued for over a year in 2003.
President Moon Jae-in, who was his nominee, in an April 2017 presidential debate, spoke of the necessity of a nuclear submarine and said, “We will discuss revising the Korea-US nuclear agreement.”
Submarine expert Sherton in Naval News said that Gyeongju's 'Ara' reactor is low-enriched uranium (less than 20%) fuel, so it is connected to France's low-enriched Barracuda class. "However, nuclear submarines can still navigate faster and longer distances."
Ian Williams, deputy director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said of the North Korean submarine, “The cold-launch upgrade of the ground-based KN-23 continues to reinforce North Korea’s very great challenge of launching ballistic missiles without damaging them. “Korea’s missile defense systems all face north, but submarines can fire missiles from any direction, so it is necessary to focus on anti-submarine operations and equip surveillance equipment,” he told Voice of America (VOA) on Oct. 23 work said
He went on to say that China and Russia are reluctant to transfer nuclear submarine technology to North Korea, as the United States is using North Korean submarines as a technology backtracking response.
Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at Land Corporation, said on September 21, "Australia's compliance with regulations, such as the principle of non-proliferation, is very convincing that Australia will not extract fuel from nuclear submarines and make nuclear weapons." Because this is very sensitive information, it should be blocked from leaking to the press, China, Russia, etc., and since South Korea has focused on North Korea and does not need to operate in the Western Pacific, it will be effective to invest in other defense capabilities instead of spending a lot of money on operating nuclear submarines.” said.
Former White House weapons of mass destruction coordinator Gary Seymour said about Ocus with Australia, "Australia is far from mainland Asia, so an agreement has been reached to have a nuclear submarine that is durable for long-distance movement unlike existing submarines. Because it is a mission and most of the battles will take place around the Korean Peninsula, conventional submarines with a short operating range can easily accomplish the mission,” he told VOA on the same day.