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South Korea faces growing calls to reconsider nuclearisation to counter North threat
- Idea has been gaining traction in recent months given mounting aggression from Pyongyang
- Seoul could redeploy US tactical weapons to country or acquire home-grown ones, but Washington unlikely to accept either option, analysts note
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South Korea is facing growing calls to acquire nuclear weapons to counter threats from the North, including tactical atomic bombs ready for use on the battlefield, analysts say.
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The South’s nuclearisation would mean redeploying US tactical nuclear weapons to the country that were pulled out in the 1990s, or acquiring home-grown ones. However, the United States is unlikely to accept either option in the foreseeable future, according to analysts.
The idea of arming South Korea with nuclear weapons dates back to the first North Korean nuclear test in 2006. It was justified under the strategic doctrines of “mutual assured destruction” and “balance of terror” through nuclear weapons.
“The idea of South Korea’s nuclearisation has been gaining traction over the past months, especially among those advocating aggressive policies based on real politics, due to the mounting nuclear threats from the North,” said Park Won-gon, a political-science professor at Ewha University.
Due to Russia’s thinly-veiled threat to use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine, decades of a taboo against hinting at the first use of nuclear weapons is being broken. “This is fuelling concerns among non-nuclear countries,” Park said.
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