South Korea declares for the first time that nuclear weapons are a political option

SEOUL, South Korea – The President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeolfirst said Wednesday that if North Korea’s nuclear threat increases, South Korea would consider building own nuclear weapons or ask In the United States deploy them on the Korean Peninsula.

Speaking at a joint briefing by the defense and foreign ministries, Yoon was quick to add that building nuclear weapons was not yet official policy.

He stressed that, for the time being, South Korea would deal with the North Korean nuclear threat by strengthening its alliance with the United States.

This policy includes finding ways to raise the reliability Washington’s commitment to protect its ally with all its defense capabilities, including nuclear weapons.

Yoon’s comments mark the first time since the United States withdrew all of its nuclear weapons from the South in 1991 that a South Korean president has officially mentioned arming the country with nuclear weapons.

Washington has withdrawn its nuclear weapons from South Korea as part of its global efforts to reduction of nuclear weapons.

“It is possible that the problem will get worse and our country will either introduce tactical nuclear weapons or build them itself,” Yoon said, according to a transcript of his remarks released by his office.

“If so, we can have our nuclear weapons quite quickly, given our scientific and technological capabilities.

South Korea is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT, which bans the country from seeking nuclear weapons.

It also signed a joint declaration with North Korea in 1991 in which both Koreas agreed not to “test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, stockpile, deploy or use nuclear weapons”.

But North Korea has violated the agreement by conducting six nuclear tests since 2006.

Years of negotiations have failed to remove a single nuclear warhead from the North. (US and South Korean officials say North Korea could conduct another nuclear test, its seventh, at any time.)

As North Korea has promised to expand its nuclear arsenal in recent months and threatened to use it against the South, rumors have grown in South Korea – among analysts and within Yoon’s ruling conservative People’s Power Party – calling for South Korea to shut down reconsider the nuclear option

Yoon’s comments this week are likely to fuel these debates.

Opinion polls in recent years have shown that most South Koreans support either the United States deploying nuclear weapons in the South or building the country own arsenal.

Policymakers in Seoul, South Korea, have rejected that option for decades, arguing that so-called American nuclear protection would keep the country safe from North Korea.

“President Yoon’s remarks could become a defining moment in South Korea’s national security history,” said Cheon Seong-whun, former director of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-funded think tank in Seoul.

“It could change your paradigm how to deal the North Korean nuclear threat.

Claims for nuclear weapons have increased in South Korea over the decades, but have never gained traction beyond casual pundits and right-wing politicians.

Under its former military dictator Park Chung-hee, South Korea embarked on a covert nuclear weapons program in the 1970s when the United States began reduce its military presence in the southmaking its population feel vulnerable to attacks from North Korea.

Washington forced it out of the program, promising to keep the ally under its nuclear umbrella.

Washington still argues 28,500 US soldiers in South Korea as a symbol of the alliance.

But North Korea has continued to test missiles in recent months, some of them designed to deliver nuclear warheads to the south.

Many South Koreans have questioned whether the United States would prevent North Korea from attacking their country, especially at the risk of leaving US cities and military bases in the Asia-Pacific region more vulnerable to nuclear attack.

Washington’s repeated promise to protect its ally – with its own nuclear weapons, if necessary – It didn’t allay that fear.

In its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, a document outlining Washington’s nuclear policy for the next five to 10 years, the Pentagon itself noted the “deterrence dilemmas” the North posed for the United States.

“A crisis or conflict on the Korean peninsula could involve multiple nuclear-armed actors, increasing the risk of a broader conflict,” he said.

“If South Korea possesses nuclear weapons, the United States will never have to question whether to use its nuclear weapons to defend its ally, and the alliance will never be tested,” said Cheong Seong-chang, an analyst at the Sejong Institute of Korea, from the south.

“If South Korea has nuclear weapons, the United States will actually be safer.”

By declaring its intention to acquire nuclear weapons, South Korea could force North Korea to do so rethink your program of nuclear weapons and perhaps prompt China to pressure North Korea to withdraw from its program, Cheong said.

China has long feared a regional nuclear arms race in East Asia.

South Korea should exit the NPT to build its own arsenal.

Analysts say leaving the NPT would be too risky for the South because it could trigger international sanctions.

Some lawmakers affiliated with Yoon’s party and analysts like Cheon want the United States to reintroduce US nuclear weapons in the South and forge a shared nuclear deal with Seoul, similar to one that would allow NATO aircraft to carry US nuclear weapons in wartime . .

The US embassy did not make immediate comments on Yoon’s statement.

Washington’s official policy is to make the Korean peninsula nuclear-free, fearing that if Seoul were to build nuclear weapons, it could ignite a regional arms race and eliminate any hope of ridding North Korea of ​​its nuclear weapons.

Yoon himself reiterated on Thursday that his country remained loyal to the NPT, at least for now. He said Wednesday – and his defense ministry reiterated Thursday – that the “most realistic means” of counter the North Korean threat would be the joint deterrence with the United States.

His government has announced that allies will hold simulation exercises starting next month to test their combined capabilities to deal with a North Korean nuclear strike and help reaffirm Washington’s commitment to its ally.

Yoon also said his military would push its own “mass punishment and retaliation” agenda, arming itself with more powerful missiles and other conventional weapons to threaten the Northern leadership.

Tensions have risen in Korea in recent weeks as Yoon’s government has responded to Northern provocations with its own escalating measures, such as sending fighter jets in response to Northern drones.

“We must crush the North’s desire to provoke,” he said on Wednesday.

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