▲ This file photo, taken July 29, 2022, shows Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul speaking during a parliamentary session at the National Assembly in Seoul. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

Seoul official-nuclear armament

Timely U.S. strategic asset deployment 'most desirable' option to deter N.K. threats: Seoul official

SEOUL, Oct. 13 (Yonhap) -- Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul said Thursday the "timely, coordinated" deployment of U.S. strategic military assets to South Korea is the "most desirable" option among the possibilities to counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

A debate has recently resurfaced over whether South Korea should push for the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear arms to the peninsula, as North Korea has adopted an assertive nuclear policy while pushing to secure tactical nuclear weapons.

"Rather than the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons, it is most desirable to deter North Korea through the deployment of U.S. strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula in a timely, coordinated manner," Shin said in an interview with SBS Radio.

Shin dismissed a news report that Seoul and Washington are looking into the idea of deploying a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group, nuclear-powered submarine or other strategic assets around the peninsula around the clock on a rotational basis.

"I want to call that idea tantamount to the sharing of nuclear weapons (between the allies)," he said. "(Current discussions) are not at that level."

Following Pyongyang's continued saber-rattling, conservative politicians here have raised anew the need for the redeployment of U.S. tactical nukes, which were withdrawn from the peninsula after the two Koreas adopted a joint declaration on denuclearization in 1991.

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