Comment by hearsathought
5 hours ago
Imagine if south korea needed china's permission to build nuclear submarines. We'd called them china's vassals and attack china for being bullies who deprived nations of their sovereignty.
Imagine if the title was : "China Gives South Korea Green Light to Build Nuclear Submarines".
What would the comments here be like. No doubt a lot of nonsense about "the ccp" this and "the ccp" that.
I will say that the "in/on US territory" piece is a very key detail.
Like obviously no matter the country, if you want to build weapons offshore in their territory you probably need permission.
> I will say that the "in/on US territory" piece is a very key detail.
That's the point. South korea is not allowed to build nuclear submarines in their own territory. They lack the sovereignty to do it. The US won't give them permission to build one on their own.
But you probably knew this and your comment is meant to distract.
That's just not true? South Korean ministers have been discussing building nuclear submarines domestically long before this current agreement.
And the US has an agreement with South Korea that limits domestic production of fissile material for military uses but it's a mutual agreement that we have with a bunch of countries (including China) and is essentially always renegotiable as situations change. Essentially it's just an explicit agreement of how much material a given country intends on producing for the purposes of requiring public political discussions domestically before ramping up production.
That is all very much a flexible situation and the US doesn't have any actual power to legitimately stop South Korea from manufacturing domestic nuclear reactors for military purposes.
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Citation needed. I am unable to find any treaty that prevents the RoK from building nuclear submarines on their own territory.
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The US invaded South Korea, had and still has massive influence on their government, has military bases there. It’s just polite fiction to ignore the fact that South Korea is a US vassal. Makes US look better in the media, etc.
> It’s just polite fiction to ignore the fact that South Korea is a US vassal
Korea is an American suzerainty. Not vassal. Similar to North Korea:China. One of the strategic considerations in countering China in Taiwan is whether Japan and Korea would refused their territory from getting involved. That's a veto a vassal doesn't get.
Iran under the Shah was a U.S. vassal. Same for Ghani's Afghanistan. (Belarus: Russia.)
> Korea is an American suzerainty. Not vassal. Similar to North Korea:China.
That's why north korea has nukes? South Korea:US is not analogous to North Korea:China. Neither is Pakistan:China analogous to South Korea:US. If you analogy held, south korea would be a nuclear power.
Stop commenting on things you know nothing about. Honestly, do you think you are an expert in every geopolitical topic?
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> We'd called them china's vassals and attack china for being bullies who deprived nations of their sovereignty
The treaty restricting Korea is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [1]. America is giving Seoul a loophole by offering to do the NPT-governed work.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_on_the_Non-Proliferatio...
Can you stop with the nonsense already. It never ends with you.
> The treaty restricting Korea is the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons [1].
Or maybe Korea could be like India, your native country, and not be part of it.
> America is giving Seoul a loophole by offering to do the NPT-governed work.
Yeah, a loophole seoul doesn't need. You act like america is doing korea a favor. All this does is make korea even more dependent on the US. Even more of a vassal.
America is doing South Korea a favor. It could ratchet sanctions (see: Iran) and ravage SK’s position and economic power on the global stage without its sign-off.
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> Or maybe Korea could be like India...and not be part of it
Sure. That comes with costs. Cost that may not make sense for Korea, which is a defense exporter globally and within the American-led Pacific alliance.
(Operating a nuclear shipyard and supply chain is incredibly expensive. It's would also be a high-value target for Pyongynag.)
> your native country
Is this a troll account? (EDIT: 4 months old. Peeked through comment history. All flamebait and racism. Flagged.)
> a loophole seoul doesn't need
You're using the word "need" ambiguously. It's a loophole Seoul benefits from. It gets the benefits of being an NPT signatory and alliance member. And it gets nuclear submarines.
We can debate the costs and benefits. But Seoul wasn't coerced into building a nuclear submarine. Put plainly, it's unclear what security benefits it gets from one given it doesn't project into blue waters.
> You act like america is doing korea a favor
Within narrow confines, it is. Within broader confines, it's acting as the senior security partner. That obviously involves a cession of sovereignty. Same goes for Pakistan vis-a-vis China, or Belarus with Russia.
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That's why reading comments about geopolitics on the Internet is largely useless. Big news! A country's population supports its own country on international stage! If you go on Chinese social media, it'll be mostly about how awful the Americans are, and vice versa if you are on Reddit for example. So what is even the point of reading them, anywhere..
I think you and I are on very different Reddits, if you're using it as an example of pro-American social media.
Fully agree that reading either for geopolitical opinions is useless.
I don't think any country has the right to demand that another country hands over enriched uranium and allow them to move into a shipyard so that they could build a nuclear sub. Of course you need permission from a seller to buy products and use their facilities. I would recommend going beyond simply reading the headline.
> I don't think any country has the right to demand that another country hands over enriched uranium and allow them to move into a shipyard so that they could build a nuclear sub.
The US won't allow south korea to enrich uranium on their own. Want to try again?
> I would recommend going beyond simply reading the headline.
Another intentional distracting comment.
> The US won't allow south korea to enrich uranium on their own. Want to try again?
190 nations have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. This includes China, so the very US vs China premise here is misplaced.
[The US, UK, France, Russia, China and 185 other countries] won't allow south korea to enrich uranium on their own
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