A review committee of the state arms agency on Friday passed the basic plan for South Korea's nuclear-powered submarine program, officials said, moving forward with efforts to build the core naval asset under an agreement with the United States. The decision-making body under the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved the plan for the Jang Bogo N project during a regular meeting earlier in the day, DAPA said in a release. The project will formally be launched in 2027. Seoul unveiled the Jang Bogo N project in May, aiming to domestically develop and build nuclear-propelled, conventionally armed attack submarines, with the first vessel to be launched in the mid-2030s and to field them after the late 2030s. The project will be subject to open bidding and exempted from a preliminary feasibility study usually required for arms acquisitions, allowing the government to accelerate its push for the construction. The government plans to directly procure small modular reactors (SMR) for the vessel's propulsion system. Seoul has secured U.S. consent to build the submarines powere