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Jon Wolfsthal

A senior White House official reaffirmed Washington’s firm opposition to calls among South Korean conservatives for nuclear armament in response to the North Korean nuclear issue.

“We think it's not in our interest and in South Korea's interest for South Korea to pursue nuclear weapons,” White House National Security Council senior director for arms control and nonproliferation Jon Wolfsthal told reporters on Sept. 21 after a keynote speech in Washington for the fourth US-ROK Dialogue, organized by the East Asia Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

“[South Koreans] are voluntarily and legally bound under the nonproliferation treaty (NPT) in a way that benefits them greatly,” he said.

Wolfsthal added that the US does not view South Korean nuclear armament as necessary.

Non-nuclear powers that are party to the NPT may receive necessary technology for operation of commercial nuclear power on the condition that they do not acquire nuclear weapons, and may purchase enriched uranium for nuclear power operation on the international market.

Wolfsthal’s comments read as an indirect warning to South Korea. He also stated his opposition to the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, saying he did not feel it would improve the deterrent.

Responding to calls for replacing the Kim Jong-un regime in Pyongyang in order to resolve the nuclear issue, Wolfsthal stressed that Washington’s aim is to change the behavior of the Pyongyang regime rather than the regime itself. While the US is preparing for the possibility of a sudden collapse of the regime, it does not take that possibility into account when developing its North Korea policy, he added.

The US executive has not made any official references to regime change in North Korea, the fact that Wolfsthal’s statement comes in the wake of its fifth nuclear test suggests an attempt to draw a clear line with regard to more extreme positions on Pyongyang.

Wolfsthal also responded to reports that China’s Hongxiang Group had exported items to North Korea, stressing that the content of the related UN Security Council resolution is clear.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a pencil or an ounce [28.35 g] of gold or a boatload of coal. Everything that North Korea does we believe is linked or supportive of their weapons of mass destruction program and that trade is to be prohibited,” he said. The message reaffirmed Washington’s plans to continue ratcheting up pressure and sanctions against North Korea through UNSC resolutions and independent US measures.

By Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent

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