South Korea considers nuclear weapons

South Korea considers nuclear weapons

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea said that the country would weigh building its own nuclear weapons, or asking the U.S. to redeploy them on the Korean Peninsula, if North Korea’s nuclear threat worsens.

His comments marked the first time that a South Korean president officially mentioned arming the country with nuclear weapons since the U.S. removed its nuclear munitions from the South in 1991. Surveys in recent years have shown that a majority of South Koreans support such a move.

Yoon added that building nuclear weapons was not yet an official policy, and that South Korea would for now strengthen its alliance with the U.S. to discourage the North’s nuclear acceleration.

Context: North Korea has vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal, and in 2022 the country tested more missiles than any previous year. The provocations have led some members of Yoon’s conservative People Power Party to call for Seoul to reconsider a nuclear option.

History: South Korea embarked on a covert nuclear weapons program in the 1970s, but abandoned it after the U.S. promised to keep the South under its nuclear umbrella. South Korea is a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which bans it from seeking nuclear weapons.