By Lee Tae-hoon
An opposition lawmaker Tuesday sparked a debate on whether Seoul should develop nuclear weapons to counter growing nuclear threats from Pyongyang in a parliamentary meeting with security experts.
“Until when should we beg a robber who threatens us to throw away his knife?” asked Rep. Song Young-sun of the minor opposition Future Hope Alliance in her opening speech of the forum she hosted under the title “Let us also talk about nukes.”
The legislator said South Koreans should wake up from the illusion that the North will eventually abandon its nuclear ambitions if Seoul and the international community keep putting additional pressure on the communist regime.
“Pyongyang will never give up its nukes,” she said.
“North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is convinced that his last resort to keep and maintain the regime is nuclear arms.”
Cheon Seong-whun, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said South Koreans should continue to respect the spirit of the Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula announced on Jan. 20, 1992.
But Cheon argued that it is necessary for South Korean lawmakers to state publicly that the joint declaration is no longer valid because of North Korea’s persistent breaches of the accord.
“That agreement became scrap paper virtually before the ink was dry,” he said noting that the North made no efforts to fulfill it.
Citing figures in the 2004 Defense White Paper, Cheon claimed that the North clandestinely extracted about 10 to 14 kilograms of plutonium from its fuel rods at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor by May 1992.
Also in clear violation of the inter-Korean accord, Pyongyang conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and pushed ahead with a second in 2009.
Kim Tae-woo, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, expressed cautions over the growing call for Seoul’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“In a nutshell, it is neither a feasible nor ideal option for South Korea,” he said.
Kim pointed out that the pro-nuclear argument can only be justified in theory.
He said Seoul will have much more to lose than gain from its pursuit of nuclear weapons as it will trigger a huge backlash from the international community and shake up its alliance with the United States.
“South Korea, whose economy heavily depends on exports, will suffer greatly once it is isolated economically and diplomatically from the western world,” he said.
Rep. Song claims that if the South seeks “peaceful nuclear development,” it will be easier for the country to secure a permanent nuclear umbrella from the United States.
“Seoul will also be able to gain leverage to receive a firm promise from Washington that it will quickly address the issue of dismantling the North’s nuclear program,” she said in an interview with The Korea Times.
She also noted that Seoul’s toughened stance toward the North’s nuclear capability would make Beijing deal more seriously with the North’s nuclear ambition for fears of a possible nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia.
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