South Korea is considering the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons as its northern neighbor raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula, according to the Pentagon.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis confirmed that he and his South Korean counterpart Song Young-moo discussed nuclear rearmament during a meeting at the end of August, with the latter arguing in favor of reintroducing nuclear weapons, calling such an option an “alternative worth a full review,” according to The Washington Post.
“We discussed the option,” the defense secretary told reporters without elaborating. “We have open dialogue with our allies on any issue they want to bring up.”
The U.S. stationed nuclear weapons in South Korea throughout much of the Cold War, but the weapons were removed after the fall of the Soviet Union in an effort to prevent North Korea from going nuclear.
North Korea tested a suspected hydrogen bomb earlier this month with an explosive yield of several hundred kilotons, enough destructive power to level a city.
In the aftermath of the North’s most recent test, talk of redeploying nuclear weapons in South Korea became more frequent, with conservatives and liberals alike offering their support to the idea.
An increasing number of South Korean people, roughly 60 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll, support the idea of a nuclear-armed South Korea.
“It has become extremely clear that diplomacy or dialogue is not a solution,” Liberty Korea Party’s Chairman Rep. Hong Joon-pyo recently told reporters, “That means the only path we can take is through operating tactical nuclear weapons,”
The conservative former South Korean president asked former President Barack Obama about reintroducing tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, but the latter rejected the South’s request.
The liberal South Korean president, however, is strongly opposed to the reintroduction of nuclear weapons. “There is no change in the government’s policy principle of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” a Blue House spokesperson revealed earlier this month, stressing, “We have never reviewed a re-adoption of the tactical nukes.
The U.S. has not yet publicly signaled a desire to station nuclear weapons in South Korea, but the administration has said repeatedly that “all options are on the table.”
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