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Defense Minister Song Young-moo

The debate over redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons with US Forces Korea is heating up after Minister of Defense referred to it on Sept. 4 “one of several alternatives.” While the Ministry of Defense went on to stress on Sept. 5 that there had been “no change in our principle [supporting] denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” opposition party lawmakers chimed in the same day with their own strong calls for redeployment.

But experts agreed the redeployment approach would be neither effective nor realistic. Ministry of Defense spokesperson Moon Sang-kyun said at a Sept. 5 briefing that Song’s remarks “were meant in the sense of exploring every available option militarily and identifying a realistic approach amid the severe nuclear and missile threat, including North Korea’s sixth nuclear test.”

“There has been no change in our administration’s principle [supporting] denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Moon added.

During an appearance at a National Assembly National Defense Committee plenary session the day before, Song said redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons “differs from the administration’s policies, but should be considered as one of several alternatives for effectively deterring and responding to the North Korean nuclear threat.”

The Liberty Korea Party (LKP) continued for a second straight day in pressuring the Moon administration to immediately push for redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons as a response to the North Korean nuclear threat.

“Whether the US is willing to deploy part of the tactical nuclear weapons on its territory to South Korea is a question of whether or not it is committed to protecting the Republic of Korea under its nuclear umbrella,” party leader Hong Joon-pyo said at a general meeting of LKP lawmakers.

USFK’s announcement of the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons [from South Korea] came on Sept. 27, 1991, during the administration of US President George H. W. Bush. On Dec. 18 of the same year, then-South Korean President Roh Tae-woo declared USFK’s withdrawal of nuclear weapons complete. South and North Korea held their fifth senior-level talks on Dec. 31, where they initialed a joint declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. After ratification procedures on both sides, the final declaration was exchanged and entered effect the following year on Feb. 19. While it was a “declaration” in title, the terms were ratified and are considered legally binding.

The denuclearization declaration consists of six articles, the first of which states that the two sides “shall not test, manufacture, produce, acquire, possess, store, distribute, or use nuclear weapons.” A reintroduction of US tactical nuclear weapons would be in violation of its terms. While some are arguing Seoul has no reason to uphold its end of the declaration when Pyongyang has pursued nuclear armament, scrapping the declaration and redeploying tactical nuclear weapons would also take away the rationale for demanding North Korea’s denuclearization. Instead, it would leave the two sides in a hair-trigger situation of antagonism, each with their own nuclear arms.

The redeployment issue has also prompted voices of concern from the US. In a Sept. 5 article, the Washington Post noted that US military experts were “almost universally opposed to the idea of deploying strategic or tactical weapons in South Korea.”

Catherine Dill, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said, “The thing that most concerns me about redeployment is that it introduces more room for miscalculation or unintended escalation.” Dill went on to say US long-range ballistic missile and strategic bombers were “perfectly sufficient” as a deterrent against the North.

One foreign affairs and national security expert who served in a key position under the Roh Moo-hyun administration (2003 - 08) said that “having nuclear weapons in South Korea would not resolve the North Korean [nuclear and missile] threat against the US [mainland], but would just create more baggage [from the US’s perspective].”

“Even if South Korea does gain nuclear capabilities, the [North Korean nuclear] threat to us will continue as long as the North and US remain at odds,” the expert added.

This suggests that redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons would neither resolve the North Korean nuclear threat nor boost South Korea’s deterrent.

By Jung In-hwan and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporters and Kim Oi-hyun, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]