The Navy seeks to deploy three 3,500-ton class next-generation submarines in the field by 2020 in stages under plans to achieve a “self-reliant” defense posture, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday (Jan. 5).

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is currently reviewing required operation capabilities for the submarine-building project, code-named “KSS-III,” worth some $3.7 billion, a spokesman of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration said.

“After the JCS completes the examination of operational capabilities, our agency will push for the development plan starting from 2010,” Jung Seung-mok said in a briefing.

The first KSS-III vessel on the country's own technology is expected to debut in 2020, he said.

The integrated agency, which was inaugurated on Jan. 1, is responsible for dealing with the nation's arms deal and development.

However, Jung dismissed reports that the shipbuilding program is for the development of nuclear-powered submarines as groundless.

“First, we don't have the technology to build nuclear-powered vessels. Second, operating submarines with nuclear fuels is the subject of inspections of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he stressed.

Possession of nuclear submarines would violate the joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula signed by the two Koreas in 1991.

On top of the KSS-III project, the Navy plans to build six 1,800-ton level Type 214 submarines between 2012 and 2022 under the KSS-II program.

Three 214-Type submarines are currently under development at Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyards under cooperation with Germany's, said Col. Min Hyung-gi at the agency's office in charge of the shipbuilding project.

The first deployment of the 1,800-ton class sub is scheduled for 2009.

Currently, the Navy has nine German-made Type 209 submarines (1,300 tons), all diesel and electric powered, while North Korea has a fleet of 70 submarines, including 22 of 1,700-ton Romio class subs.

The Type 209 sub of “Changbogo class” was introduced in the early 1990s. The life span of a submarine is about 25 years.

A Type 214 submarine, about 65 meters long and 6 meters wide, costs some $1 billion. It can submerge to a depth of up to 400 meters and will be equipped with 8 torpedo tubes, submarine-to-surface missile. The vessel can carry out underwater operations for a maximum of two weeks at a time.

Japan has 16 state-of-the-art submarines including eight 3,000-ton Oyashio class submarines, while China has a fleet of 60 including Han class offensive nuclear-powered submarines. The United States has as its mainstay 7,000-ton Los Angeles class submarines propelled by nuclear power.