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Liberty Korea Party leader Hong Joon-pyo attends a meeting of the LKP special committee on Sept. 18 at the party headquarters in the Yeoido district of Seoul. (Yonhap News)

Liberty Korea Party (LKP) leader Hong Joon-pyo went beyond advocating the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula by calling for South Korea’s own nuclear armament. In response to reports from fellow LKP lawmakers of Washington’s opposition to redeployment – including Lee Cheol-woo, who recently visited the US – Hong only intensified his remarks, calling for South Korea’s withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“If the US does not end up redeploying tactical nukes, then [we] may have a concrete justification for arming ourselves with nuclear weapons,” Hong said at a Sept. 18 meeting of the LKP’s special committee on a response to the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Hong also called for nuclear armament at a meeting of the party’s supreme council earlier that morning.

“The reason Israel has been able to survive despite being surrounded by Arab states is because of nuclear armament,” he said. “Former [West] German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt (1974–82) called for and received redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, arguing that the US nuclear umbrella couldn’t be relied upon, and that ended up forcing Russia to give in,” he added.

Hong also told LKP members to encourage overseas Koreans to post a petition on the White House homepage calling for redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons. He also announced his own plans to request redeployment from the US government during a forthcoming visit between late October and early November.

Ha Tae-keung, a member of the Bareun Party supreme council, responded to Hong’s remarks by saying it would be a “direct challenge to the US-led world order for us to bow out of the NPT, which the US created.” Hong “is saying he wants a battle with the US,” Ha said.

By Song Ho-jin, staff reporter　

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