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President Donald Trump said he has ordered the US defence department to resume testing nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China.
“I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social on Thursday.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was referring to an explosive test of a nuclear warhead — the likes of which have not been carried out by the US, Russia or China since the 1990s — or a test of a missile or other weapon system that would be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s statement came shortly before a high-stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the South Korean city of Busan in what is expected to be a make-or-break moment for global trade.
“We’re going to have a very successful meeting I have no doubt,” Trump said as he greeted Xi on Thursday. He added that the Chinese president was “a very tough negotiator”.
“That’s not good,” Trump said.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump said that he had given South Korea permission to build nuclear-powered submarines in Philadelphia, as he hailed the military alliance with Seoul as “stronger than ever”.
The White House did not respond to a request for more information on the announcement.
It was unclear whether Trump would permit South Korea to process fuel for nuclear-powered submarines — a stance Washington has previously opposed — or provide the technology, a move it has only extended to the UK and Australia.
The US conducted its last underground nuclear test in 1992, shortly before then-president George HW Bush signed a moratorium on atomic weapons testing into law.
But Moscow has recently stepped up testing of nuclear-capable weapons in what has been widely interpreted as a message to Trump, who has sought to pressure President Vladimir Putin to participate in talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Putin, who pledged last week never to bow to western pressure, said on Wednesday that Russia had successfully tested a nuclear-powered super torpedo, a so-called super weapon designed to create radioactive ocean swells that could devastate coastal cities.
Over the weekend, Russia carried out a test of its nuclear-powered, long-range Burevestnik cruise missile.
Russia has not conducted an explosive test of its nuclear weapons, with the last such test carried out by the Soviet Union in 1990. China has also embarked on a rapid expansion of its nuclear forces in recent years, though it has not tested a warhead since 1996. North Korea is the only country to have carried out explosive nuclear weapons test this century.
If the US were to proceed with testing a nuclear warhead, it would likely spur Moscow and Beijing to follow suit, said James Acton, co-director of the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“I think it’s extremely likely that if the United States tests a nuclear warhead, Russia and China will follow,” he said.
“That said, it’s not clear to me that Trump is ordering a nuclear test,” as opposed to the test of a weapon that could deliver a nuclear warhead, he added.
Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Gyeongju
