South Korea may ask US to redeploy nuke weapons in South

President Yoon Suk Yeol said if North Korea's nuclear threat grows, his country may build a nuclear arsenal of its own or ask the United States to redeploy in the South. SEOUL - President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea said for the first time on Wednesday that if North Korea's nuclear threat grows, South Korea would consider building nuclear weapons of its own or ask the United States to redeploy them on the Korean Peninsula. Speaking at a joint policy briefing by his defense and foreign ministries on Wednesday, Yoon said that building nuclear weapons was not yet an official policy. He stressed that South Korea would deal with North Korea's nuclear threat by strengthening its alliance with the United States. Such a policy includes finding ways to increase the reliability of Washington's commitment to protect its ally with all of its defense capabilities, including nuclear weapons. A South Korean president has officially mentioned arming the country with nuclear weapons after the United States withdrew all of its nuclear weapons from the South in 1991. Washington removed its nuclear weapons from South Korea as part of its global nuclear arms reduction efforts.

According to a transcript released by his office, he said that the problem could get worse and our country will introduce nuclear weapons or build them on our own. If that is the case, we can have our own nuclear weapons pretty quickly, given our scientific and technological capabilities. South Korea is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT, which bans the country from seeking nuclear weapons. In 1991, the joint declaration with North Korea was signed by both Koreas not to test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons. Since 2006, North Korea has reneged on the agreement by conducting six nuclear tests. Years of negotiations have failed to remove a single nuclear warhead in the North. American and South Korean officials say that North Korea could conduct another nuclear test, its seventh, at any moment. By declaring an intention to arm itself with nuclear weapons, South Korea could force North Korea to rethink its own nuclear weapons program and possibly pressure Pyongyang to roll back its program, Mr. Cheong said. China has been a skeptic of a regional nuclear war in East Asia. South Korea would need to leave the NPT to build its own arsenal. Analysts said that quitting the NPT would be too risky for the South because it could trigger international sanctions. Some lawmakers affiliated with Mr. Yoon s party and analysts like Mr. Cheon want the United States to reintroduce American nuclear weapons to the South and forge a nuclear-sharing agreement with Seoul, similar to the one in which NATO aircraft would be allowed to carry American nuclear weapons in wartime. The American Embassy had no immediate comment on Yoon's statement. Washington s official policy is to make the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons, fearing that if Seoul were to build nuclear weapons, it could trigger a regional arms race and eliminate any hope of ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons. Yoon reiterated on Thursday that his country remains committed to the NPT for now. He said on Wednesday and his Defense Ministry reiterated on Thursday that the more realistic means of countering the North Korean threat would be through joint deterrence with the United States.