Calls growing for redeploying nuclear weapons in S. Korea

By Jun Ji-hye

U.S. officials and politicians are joining in the calls for the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea to counter North Korea’s repeated nuclear and missile tests.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that the United States should seriously consider redeploying the weapons to the South.

“The (South) Korean defense minister just a few days ago called for nuclear weapons to be redeployed,” McCain said during a nationally televised interview with CNN, adding he thought “it ought to be seriously considered.”

Defense Minister Song Young-moo told a National Assembly session Sept. 4 that Seoul can consider the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons as one of the options to better deter evolving North Korean threats.

The session was held a day after the regime in Pyongyang conducted its sixth nuclear test, claiming it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb (thermonuclear warhead) that could be mounted on its intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking targets on the U.S. mainland.

Song also mentioned the redeployment of such weapons during a bilateral meeting with his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis, in Washington at the end of last month.

Such weapons were withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula in the early 1990s.

NBC News also quoted an unidentified White House official as saying Friday that the Donald Trump administration is not ruling out redeploying the tactical weapons to South Korea should Seoul request them.

It added that U.S. officials have also told China that if Beijing doesn’t take stronger steps against the North, such as cutting off oil supplies, Seoul and Tokyo are likely to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs and Washington will not stop them.

In 1991, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush decided to remove all U.S. nuclear weapons from the South in an effort to pave the way for renewed demands for the North to give up its nuclear program. The decision was the prelude to the two Koreas issuing a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea’s main opposition Liberty Korea Party has stepped up calls for the redeployment of the U.S. nuclear weapons, saying this is the only way to deal with the North’s nuclear threats.

Some military observers are already raising speculation that B61 nuclear bombs capable of being loaded onto fighter jets would be moved to the South if the decision on the redeployment were made.

But skepticism is abounding over the concerns that the redeployment would break Seoul’s denuclearization commitment and also break nearly three decades of U.S. policy of denuclearizing the peninsula.

The Moon Jae-in administration adhered to its original position that the redeployment would go against the principle of denuclearization of the peninsula.

“We are not considering the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons,” a Cheong Wa Dae official said, asking not to be named.

U.S. politicians’ growing mentions of nuclear weapons in the South is construed as being aimed at pressuring China and Russia ahead of the U.N. Security Council’s (UNSC) vote on a draft resolution imposing additional sanctions on the North.

Washington wants the UNSC to impose an oil embargo on Pyongyang and ban textile exports from the North and the hiring of North Korean laborers to work abroad. But Beijing and Moscow are reportedly opposed to the measures, except for the ban on textile exports.

Meanwhile, the daily JoongAng Ilbo reported Monday that the former Park Geun-hye government asked the Barack Obama administration in early October to move U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the South, but the latter refused the request based on his hope of achieving a nuclear-free world.

The newspaper said Park’s then Deputy National Security Adviser Cho Tae-yong made the request during his visit to Washington from Oct. 4 to 7. Cho refused to talk about the issue.