Oct. 31 (UPI) -- "President Trump, I ask you to make a bold decision so that South Korea can receive fuel for nuclear-powered submarines."
When President Lee Jae Myung suddenly uttered those words during the second U.S.-Korea summit in Gyeongju on Wednesday, many Koreans watching on live television gasped.
What startled them even more than the bold ask was his reasoning. Lee explained that "diesel-powered submarines have limited underwater endurance, restricting our ability to track North Korean and Chinese vessels," and that if South Korea deployed nuclear-powered submarines, "it would also substantially reduce the operational burden on U.S. forces."
It was, by any standard, a statement fraught with risk -- a security issue so sensitive that every word could be seized upon as a diplomatic provocation. Yet, Lee voiced it publicly before an audience that included not only his own citizens, but also the entire watching world.
Among those "citizens" were progressives critical of the United States, and within that "world" was China itself.
