BUSAN, South Korea: Earlier last year, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol suggested there may come a time when Seoul may have to consider developing a nuclear arsenal of its own if North Korea’s nuclear threat grows.

Although South Korean officials were quick to walk back on Mr Yoon’s comments, there was no putting the genie back into the bottle. South Korean public support for nuclearisation is the highest it has ever been; 71 per cent of South Koreans think the country should acquire nuclear weapons.

Earlier this year, the South’s largest circulation newspaper issued editorials demanding the same. So did a major South Korea national security think tank.

And last week, South Korea’s defence minister nominee Kim Yong-hyun spoke approvingly of the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons. 

The nuclear debate was supposed to have ended last year. Then, South Korea signed a major deal with its United States ally, recommitting South Korea to its non-nuclear status in exchange for tighter US security guarantees. The US strongly opposes the nuclearisation of any currently non-nuclear state, including its own allies.

But North Korea has a growing nuclear and missile programme. South Korea currently stalemates that arsenal via US “extended deterrence”. That is, the US counters the North’s nuclear threat on South Korea’s behalf; South Korea does not do so with its own nuclear weapons.

That places a lot of trust in the US to come through for South Korea in a potentially nuclear situation. South Korea’s ongoing nuclear interest suggests that trust has eroded.rainbow game

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