Former US Envoy Joseph Yun: No Washington Consensus on South Korean Nuclear Submarines a Year After Trump's Approval
Joseph Yun, a former acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea and former special representative for North Korea, told a forum hosted by the Korea-U.S. Parliamentarians' Union on November 10, speaking by video, that there is "no consensus in Washington that Korea ought to have enrichment or nuclear submarines", and that he could not imagine the matter moving very rapidly. Korean media note that a year has passed since President Trump approved South Korean nuclear submarines, with follow-up talks stalled.
The background is the October 29, 2025 summit between Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Gyeongju. Lee asked Trump to allow the supply and reprocessing of nuclear fuel for nuclear-propelled submarines. Trump posted the next morning that he had given approval to build a nuclear-powered submarine instead of the older diesel boats, and said it would be built at the Hanwha-owned Philadelphia Shipyards. A joint U.S.-Korea fact sheet on trade and security that followed also included enrichment and submarine cooperation.
Progress since has been limited: Seoul prefers to build the boats in South Korea, fuel transfer would require a revised or separate U.S.-Korea nuclear agreement and congressional backing, and in January 2026 four Democratic senators wrote to Trump warning the move could undermine non-proliferation policy. South Korea's presidential office has said last year's security agreement would be honoured.
Yun is a former career diplomat and his remarks are a personal assessment, not a formal change of U.S. government position. Some Chinese-language coverage framed his comments as Washington walking back the deal; that overstates what he said, and this report follows his actual wording.
(Source: Yonhap)
Source: Yonhap
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：韩国海军张保皋号潜艇（资料图）。公共领域，美国海军，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: ROKS Jangbogo, a South Korean Navy submarine (file photo). Public domain, U.S. Navy, via Wikimedia Commons.
