Group calls for return of U.S. nukes to S.K.

Balance of military power now upset: veterans, former defense officials

Since North Korea’s proclaimed nuclear weapons test on October 9, a group of South Korean military experts has said that U.S. strategic nuclear weapons should be brought back to South Korea.

A group of 17 former defense ministers and veterans released a statement on October 12 which said that in order to further strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance, the government should strongly request the United States to redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea, which were withdrawn in 1991. With Pyongyang testing its nuclear bombs, they said, to compare military capability between the South and North based on conventional weapons has become meaningless and it is necessary to redeploy U.S. tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

The tactical nuclear weapons are scaled mainly to be able to be loaded onto artillery shells.

Concerning expected resistance from nations such as China, Russia, Japan, and Taiwan, however, the U.S. will likely take a cautious attitude toward any such request should it be made, experts say. A Ministry of National Defense official said on condition of anonymity, "Regarding the North’s nuclear provocation, we can cope with it using the U.S.’s conventional state-of-the-art fighting power, like F-15 fighters, Aegis ships, missiles, and tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Guam. Therefore, it isn’t necessary to bring tactical nuclear weapons back to the peninsula."

Park Jeong-eun of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said, "The idea of using nuclear weapons to restrain nuclear weapons is like a return to the past hostile relationship between the South and North, just as in the time of the Cold War. I wonder if this is a valid survival strategy for the Korean peninsula."