After reading the Korea Times editorial titled ``Conflict on nuclear pact,’’ I thought that there is no other way but to go nuclear.

North Korea has been confirmed to be already armed with at least eight nuclear warheads. How could South Korea cope with this difficult situation?

Which way should it take: maintaining the status quo by keeping on leading the current comfortable life under the American nuclear umbrella or going nuclear? The great majority of South Koreans would believe that there is only one answer ― arming themselves with nuclear weapons.

It is well known that China has a number of nuclear weapons. It was China that blocked the only chance for South and North Korea to be united after its liberation from Japan.

While our country has made efforts to rewrite the bilateral nuclear treaty with Washington, which keeps South Korea from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, the U.S. has reportedly been lukewarm to that demand owing to nuclear proliferation worry.

Things have changed a lot though, looking back on the year 1972 when the treaty was sealed. The North holds nuclear arms and Japan appears on its way to develop nuclear arsenal. We cannot afford to be exposed to North Korea’s nuclear threat even if we are under America's nuclear umbrella.

I see some uneasy signs in Koreans’ minds from little progress in five rounds of negotiations between Seoul and Washington to rewrite the treaty. Nobody could be sure that those signs will take an unwelcome turn for the worse under the Barak Obama government.