Minister of National Defense Ahn Kyu-baek speaks during the National Assembly audit of the Ministry of National Defense at the ministry building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on October 13 last year. National Assembly Press Corps.

The Ministry of National Defense is pursuing the enactment of a special law to establish a construction framework for nuclear-powered submarines. The judgment is that a special law is needed because current law regulates nuclear power for civilian purposes, and thus separate legislation is required to utilize it for military purposes.

The ministry announced on the 10th that it has commissioned a research project titled ‘Preparation of a special law for promoting the nuclear-submarine program’ as the core of these plans. Jeong Bit-na, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said, “There are currently no regulations that manage the special elements of nuclear submarines, such as reactors and nuclear fuel,” and “We are working to establish a regulatory basis that reflects the characteristics of nuclear submarines.”

The ministry believes that there are limits to using existing statutes to establish a system for safety regulation·safety measures·security·management of radioactive materials with respect to military nuclear power to be applied to nuclear-powered submarines. Existing laws, including the Defense Acquisition Program Act and the Nuclear Safety Act, are based on civilian nuclear power and are therefore considered limited for application to nuclear-powered submarines that will be used for military purposes.

The ministry also explained that the nuclear-powered submarine program is a national strategic project into which large budgets and national effort will be invested over a long period, and that separate legal grounds are needed to maintain consistency in the project implementation system and to ensure the stable allocation of state resources.

The ministry is considering including in the special law a clause that would institutionalize a pan-government nuclear-submarine task force (TF). Currently, because approval procedures at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety have not been completed, the pan-government TF is being operated as a team within the Ministry of National Defense. The ministry plans to use the special law as the basis for making the pan-government TF permanent.

The ministry said it will begin the legislative process in the first half of this year. Spokesperson Jeong stated, “We aim to initiate the legislative process, led by the Ministry of National Defense, within the first half of the year.”