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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Korean Lawmakers Call For Return Of U.S. Nuclear Weapons To Peninsula

From ROK Drop:

10:12 AM (10 hours ago)Korean Lawmakers Calls for Return of US Nuclear Weaponsfrom ROK Drop by GI Korea






I don’t think this will go very far:



A senior lawmaker called on the United States, Friday, to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea _ which were withdrawn in 1991 _ to thwart any nuclear threat from North Korea.



The remarks made by Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) were expected to cause a stir as a nuclear-free Korea has been a core U.S. policy toward the peninsula.



During a parliamentary session, Chung told Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin that South Korea had no other cards to play to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. [Korea Times]



Read the rest at the link, but wouldn’t allowing South Korea to develop their own nuclear weapons be more of a deterrent to North Korea’s nuclear program instead of reintroducing US nuclear weapons? This would of course anger the Chinese to have a nuclear armed South Korea right across from their major population centers, but it is the Chinese that have been allowing the North Koreans to develop their nuclear weapons. I think South Korea has every right to develop theirs in response. Just the legitimate threat to develop nuclear weapons in South Korea may be enough for the Chinese to begin to seriously pressure the North Koreans to curb their nuclear weapons program.



Anyone else have any thoughts on the ROK developing their own nuclear deterrent?

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