South Korea Joins Asia’s Naval Arms Race, The American Interest

South Korea Joins Asia’s Naval Arms Race

Not to be outdone by the neighbors, many of which have launched powerful new naval assets recently, South Korea introduced a brand new “state of the art” submarine, the Kim Jwa-jin. The 1,800-ton vessel, South Korea’s fourth, was christened by President Park Geun-hye, the Defense Minister, and other senior military officials. President Park had this to say on the occasion:

Submarine Kim Jwa-jin will contribute much to upholding our maritime sovereignty. Under the reality of sharp conflicts between national interests, it should be necessary to protect our waters and our national interests in the waters.

Let’s list the major new entrants in Asia’s intensifying naval arms race: China appears to be working on a second aircraft carrier and recently launched a reorganized and well-outfitted maritime police force. On the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Japan revealed the Izumo, a flat-top destroyer that looks suspiciously like an aircraft carrier. India showed off its first nuclear submarine and its first homemade aircraft carrier, which will be battle ready in a few years. All of these countries have announced that a renewedfocus on maritime defense and naval upgrades over the next decade.

The launching of the Izumo in Japan raised a few eyebrows in Seoul and Beijing, not least because the ship is named after a destroyer that played an important role in the battles that began Japan’s brutal colonization of China and South Korea in the 1930s. The Kim Jwa-jin, meanwhile, will probably raise some hackles in Tokyo: it’s named after an anarchist and independence fighter who led guerrilla attacks against Japanese forces in China in the 1920s.

[The Chang Bogo, another of South Korea's submarines; image courtesy of Wikimedia]