President Donald Trump said he agreed to multiple deals with South Korea, including Seoul building nuclear-powered submarines in the US. 

“South Korea has agreed to pay the USA 350 Billion Dollars for a lowering of the Tariff’s charged against them by the United States,” the President wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “Additionally, they have agreed to buy our Oil and Gas in vast quantities, and investments into our Country by wealthy South Korean Companies and Businessmen will exceed 600 Billion Dollars.”

“Our Military Alliance is stronger than ever before and, based on that, I have given them approval to build a Nuclear Powered Submarine, rather than the old fashioned, and far less nimble, diesel powered Submarines that they have now,” he continues. In a separate post, he said the vessels would be built in Philadelphia.  

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung emphasized that while the submarines would be nuclear-powered, they would not be armed with nuclear weapons. “We are not proposing to build submarines armed with nuclear weapons; rather, diesel submarines have inferior submerged endurance, which limits our ability to track North Korean or Chinese submarines,” Lee said. 

Under the AUKUS pact, the US similarly agreed to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia. China has condemned AUKUS. “The latest joint statement from the US, UK and Australia demonstrates that the three countries, for the sake of their own geopolitical interests, completely disregard the concerns of the international communities and are walking further and further down the path of error and danger,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in 2023. 

Trump announced the nuclear-powered submarine deal with South Korea hours before he is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi.