South Korea Ponders Nuclear Arsenal for Defense, Deterrent

As China and North Korea flex their military muscles on the world stage, most South Koreans think the country should consider building its own nuclear arsenal, NBC News reported.

“If North Korea invaded now, I don’t know if we can assume that America would protect us again,” Kim Kwan-jung, a 65-year-old South Korean craftsman in the port city of Busan, told NBC News on Tuesday.

According to a recent poll cited in the report, 71% of South Koreans support the nation building its own nuclear arsenal as a deterrent to the already armed North Korea, despite vows from the United States and the administration of President Joe Biden it would protect the southern part of the contested peninsula.

The poll from Global Affairs found, while 56% said they supported nuclear arms being deployed from the United States, 67% would rather see them create their own weapons, even though 61% said they are confident the U.S. would protect them militarily in a conflict.

“The fact that the nuclear-armed North is not a priority for the Biden administration makes the Koreans nervous,” Rep. Lee Jae-jung, a left-leaning lawmaker who opposes nuclear armament, told the news outlet.

She said it appears the United States is focusing more, instead, on the possibility of China moving against Taiwan than a possible incursion south by North Korea, who remains at war with the South after more than 70 years.

The concerns have grown due to the record number of ballistic missiles fired off by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as well as his vow to increase his country’s nuclear arsenal, the report said.

According to the report, a discussion on the nuclear issues will likely be part of a meeting between Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

“The Yoon administration has made clear that it is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program and that it is working closely with the United States through existing extended deterrence mechanisms,” a State Department spokesperson told NBC News.

The report said South Korea signed a treaty against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, making the ability for them to build their own weapons unlikely.

“Anybody who genuinely believes that South Korea will get its own nuclear weapons has absolutely no idea what they’re talking about,” Jung Se-hyon, a former minister of unification, said in the report. “But the robust support for proliferation does speak to the Korean people’s fears of conflict, and the South Korean public just doesn’t trust what the Americans are saying right now.”