[Courtesy of the presidential Blue House]
Instead of nuclear armament, South Korea wants the United States to deploy powerful military assets such as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and strategic bombers regularly in Northeast Asia as a deterrent to North Korea's nuclear and missile development.
In a parliamentary defense committee, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said that at talks with US Defense Secretary James Mattis, he conveyed the idea of
deploying American strategic assets including an aircraft carrier, nuclear submarins and strategic bombers to South Korea on a regular basis.
Pyongyang's fresh nuclear test reignited a public debate on nuclear armament in South Korea, but Song cautioned against bringing back US tactical nuclear weapons withdrawn from the Korean peninsula in the early 1990s.
Wary of potential proliferation, Washington has put South Korea's nuclear facilities under tight surveillance, but the North's aggressive push for the development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles has complicated matters, leading to a dramatic change in South Korea's public perception.
National Assembly Speaker Chung Sye-kyun has opposed South Korea's nuclear armament and supported President Moon Jae-in's diplomatic initiative. "It is true that North Korea broke the principle of denuclearization... However, if we hit back with nuclear weapons, we will be eventually on the road to collapse together," he said in an earier interview with Aju News.
The North's sixth nuclear test on Sunday has apparently complicated Moon's policy of engagement. US President Donald Trump said in a tweet that South Korea was "finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work".
Trump threatened To cut off all trade with countries doing business with North Korea in an apparent message to China. "The United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea," he tweeted.
"North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success," he said, questioning the effectiveness of Moon's policy.
Moon has urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-un not to cross the so-called "red line" by deploying a "weaponized" intercontinental ballistic missile mounted with nuclear weapons.
Moon has proposed the suspension of all acts of hostility on the heavily armed inter-Korean border, a security guarantee, a peace treaty and other incentives in return for denuclearization. His advisory group suggested that Seoul should step up efforts to hold talks regularly, reopen severed cross-border communication lines, and map out a "comprehensive" negotiation strategy aimed at inducing an agreement on complete nuclearization by 2020.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
