China Warns Of Shift In Stance If US-South Korea Alliance Moves To Contain Beijing

China on Monday warned that its view of the US–South Korea alliance would “change” if Washington and Seoul shifted their strategic focus toward trying to contain Beijing following their deal to jointly produce nuclear submarine.

The strong reaction by China came after a US naval official said nuclear-powered submarines to be built by South Korea with American support would be used to counter China.

Reacting to the remarks by US Admiral Daryl Caudle, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, “We hope the ROK (South Korea) and the US will prudently handle the matter." Chinese ambassador to South Korea Dai Bing warned that ongoing efforts by South Korea and the US to modernise their alliance should not be expanded into a framework aimed at containing China, which would divert the alliance from its stated purpose of addressing North Korean threats.

"If there is a change in the strategic purpose of the South Korea-US alliance, China's perspective toward the alliance would also change," China’s state-run Global Times quoted him as saying.

US Admiral Daryl Caudle told South Korean media that the “utilisation of that submarine to counter China, I think, is a natural expectation." "With that type of capability, I think the US would expect that partnership, again, working as an alliance together, to meet our combined goals on what the US considers to be our pacing threat, which is China," Caudle was quoted as saying by South Korean news agency Yonhap.  "With great power comes great responsibility," he said, adding that South Korea would be expected to "deploy those submarines globally and move away from just being a regional navy to a global navy." His comments followed an announcement by South Korea last week that it has finalised an agreement to build nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with the US.

The US has approved the "attack submarines" and agreed to cooperate in sourcing fuel, according to a fact sheet released by the White House on Thursday detailing discussions of summit talks between South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and US President Donald Trump on October 29, Yonhap reported.

The agreement marks a significant step in South Korea's relations with the US and comes amid a period of growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula with North Korea, which has claimed to be developing a nuclear submarine, reportedly with the help of Russia.   Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told the BBC that the nuclear subs' primary purpose is to assure South Korean voters that their government is responding to North Korea's nuclear threat.

"South Korea cannot develop its own nuclear weapons to counter North Korea's. What's something that they can do? Fielding nuclear submarines," Yang said.