Will South Korea Go Nuclear?

A group of lawmakers from South Korea's Saenuri party—the conservative-leaning party that President Park Geun-hye belongs to—has called for what even a few of years ago was an idea safely relegated to the fringes of Korean political discourse: for Seoul to pursue its own nuclear weapons program. "In order to protect peace we . . .need to consider all measures to deter North Korea's provocations, including nuclear armament for the purpose of self-defense," Rep. Won Yoo-chul said. Some in the liberal Minjoo party have also called for at least considering going nuclear.

The legislators' call comes on the heels of North Korea's fifth nuclear test, the Kim regime's largest and most frightening weapons test yet. Pyongyang has also been increasingly vocal in calls for "final victory"—the unification of the Korean peninsula under Communist rule. Given the Kim dynasty's history of sinking South Korean ships, shelling South Korean islands, blowing up South Korean airliners, and, er, a while ago, invading South Korea, that's not rhetoric that one should take lightly.

The call also comes at a time of increasing anxiety regarding the United States' commitment to South Korea, to which it is treaty-bound. After all, if South Korea is safely ensconced under the United States' nuclear umbrella, why should it need its own nukes? In an editorial published in the wake of the North's nuclear test, however, one of Korea's leading newspapers, Chosun Ilbo, wrote that "the government and the U.S. tell South Koreans to trust the U.S.-led nuclear umbrella. But in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, the U.S. president and Senate would have to authorize military action, and amid increasing isolationist sentiment in the U.S. that might not be forthcoming." That's a sentiment that looks fairly widespread: Recent polling shows large majorities of South Koreans support their country gaining a nuclear deterrent.

In the meantime, Seoul has embraced a little bit of North Korea-style rhetoric—it recently threatened to turn Pyongyang to "ashes" in the event of an attack. While that's not quite KCNA levels of craziness, it's a start. Sanctions, and the Sunshine Policy before it, have done nothing to halt the North's nuclear ambitions. (Let alone improve its ghastly human rights situation.) Perhaps a bit of bellicosity from the South will send Kim a message he needs to hear.
by is licensed under