President Yoon Suk-yeol surprises America by musing about nuclear weapons
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIt is the first time in decades that a sitting South Korean president has talked about going nuclear. His remarks were admittedly casual, says Yang Uk of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a think-tank in Seoul, who was in the room. And they cropped up within a somewhat meandering speech that required its audience to imagine a number of hypotheticals.
Mr Yoon’s words may thus have several intended audiences. The first is domestic. Taking a hard line against North Korea pleases his conservative base. Several polls show robust public support for an indigenous nuclear deterrent. Another is North Korea. In the same speech Mr Yoon said the most effective deterrent against aggression would be to convince the North it would be hit “100 or 1,000 times” more strongly than any blow it could land.
South Korea’s president may be seeking stronger American assurances. In November the two countries agreed, among other things, to hold tabletop training exercises that “include anuclear use scenario”. But they disagree over what this means. The South Koreans have repeatedly suggested they were discussing “joint nuclear weapons planning and exercises” with America that would be tantamount to-style “nuclear sharing”, in which allies get a say on the use of nuclear weapons .
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