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Philip Goldberg, the US ambassador to South Korea, speaks at an invitational debate hosted by the Kwanhun Club held at the Korea Press Center in downtown Seoul on Oct. 18. (Yonhap)

On Tuesday, US Ambassador to South Korea Philip Goldberg emphasized the importance of nuclear nonproliferation while expressing clear opposition to proposals by South Korea’s ruling party about asking the US military to redeploy or share tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea.

Goldberg’s comments came during a forum organized by the Kwanhun Club, an organization for South Korean journalists, at the Korea Press Center on Tuesday morning.

“I believe that President Yoon [. . .] has addressed the issue by restating [South Korea’s] commitment to the NPT. And I also believe that we should be focused on not increasing the threat from nuclear weapons, whether they are tactical or otherwise, but to address [. . .] the need to reduce tensions and rid the world of nuclear arms,” he said during the forum.

NPT is an acronym for the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which is often shortened to the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“All this talk about tactical nuclear weapons [. . .] is irresponsible and dangerous. And escalation of those kinds of threats or speculation [doesn’t] help the situation,” Goldberg said, referring to how Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have recently mentioned the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons.

“Extended deterrence means the protections provided by the United States in all areas including nuclear. We have this ironclad commitment; nobody should have any doubt about that,” the ambassador stressed.

Goldberg’s remarks are notable since they express the US’ discomfort with proposals for the US redeploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea or for South Korea withdrawing from the NPT and then acquiring its own nuclear arsenal — proposals that have recently been made by frontrunners in the race for next leader of South Korea’s ruling People Power Party.

Those very proposals can be seen as signaling distrust in the US’ pledge of “extended deterrence."

Goldberg firmly dismissed the idea of adopting something akin to NATO’s nuclear sharing program in South Korea. “What I have said is that the United States has a commitment [. . .] to extended deterrence that includes our nuclear capability,” he said.

The US ambassador also overtly rejected the idea that South Korea should respond to the North’s nuclear arsenal with nukes of its own. According to Goldberg, the US is firmly committed to the NPT, which blocks the development and dissemination of nuclear weapons, and considers that a solid policy.

Rather than a hypothetical situation in which North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons is regarded as normal, Goldberg said, South Korea and the US ought to focus on how to end the North Korean threat.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also reiterated the importance of the nuclear nonproliferation regime.

“One of the most important and powerful things about trying to continue to advance nonproliferation, preventing the spread of weapons, [. . .] is making sure that we don’t have a world where a whole variety of countries conclude that they’re going to be better off if they acquire nuclear weapons. [. . .] So we have to find ways to reinforce these norms,” Blinken said during a public conversation with former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at Stanford University on Monday.

By Jung In-hwan, staff reporter

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