President Yoon Suk-yeol answers reporters' questions as he enters his office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday. Joint Press Corps

Debate heats up over redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea

By Nam Hyun-woo

A number of ideas are being floated to enhance Seoul's deterrence after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol hinted that he will keep all options open, including the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons, in order to deal with North Korea's increasing belligerence.

"With various opinions being raised in South Korea and the U.S. over the extended deterrence, we are now listening and thoroughly studying various possibilities," Yoon told reporters Thursday when asked about the chance of sharing nuclear weapons with the U.S. He refused to elaborate further citing security concerns.

Recently, not only Yoon but also his aides have been using similar rhetoric whenever they were quizzed about Seoul's intention to ask the U.S. to deploy nuclear weapons on South Korean soil or other measures to cope with North Korea's ever-increasing security threats.

The North has been conducting a barrage of missile tests since last month, claiming the launches are "tactical nuclear drills," and the Kim Jong-un regime is anticipated to carry out its seventh nuclear test in the near future.

Calls are mounting, especially from the ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP), for South Korea to consider redeploying tactical nuclear weapons.

Former South Korean President Roh Tae-woo signs the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula at Cheong Wa Dae, in this Feb. 17, 1992 file photo. Korea Times file

Turning the clock back

South Korea declared itself as a nuclear-free state in the early 1990s, to join the world's efforts to exit the Cold War era. Reportedly, U.S. Forces Korea possessed hundreds of tactical nuclear weapons since the 1950s. The weapons were removed from the Korean Peninsula after the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which was adopted by the two Koreas in 1991 and took effect in February of the following year.

The recent calls for redeploying nuclear weapons in South Korea mean that the joint declaration will no longer be viable. And if that is the case, Seoul and Washington must consider turning the clock back to bring U.S. tactical nuclear weapons back here.

"The time has come," PPP interim leader Chung Jin-suk wrote on Facebook, Wednesday. "If the North carries out the seventh nuclear weapons test, the 2018 comprehensive military agreement between the two Koreas and the 1991 denuclearization declaration should be scrapped."