Seoul has no plans to pursue its own nuclear deterrent, despite North Korean nuclear threats, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said yesterday as he urged Pyongyang to return to dialogue aimed at exchanging denuclearization steps for economic benefits.
Yoon’s comments at a news conference came hours after South Korea’s military detected the North firing two cruise missiles from a region near its capital toward its western waters.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately confirm other details, including how far the weapons flew.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The US and South Korea next week are to begin their biggest combined military training in years to counter the North Korean threat.
The North describes such drills as invasion rehearsals often responding with missile launches or other provocative actions.
Yoon told reporters that South Korea does not desire political change in North Korea that is brought by force, and he called for diplomacy aimed at building sustainable peace between the two sides amid tensions over the North’s accelerating weapons program.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Yoon’s comments came days after he proposed an “audacious” economic assistance package to North Korea if it abandons its nuclear weapons program, while avoiding harsh criticism of the North after it threatened “deadly” retaliation over a COVID-19 outbreak it blames on the South.
Yoon expressed hope for “meaningful dialogue” with North Korea over his plan and stressed that Seoul is willing to provide corresponding economic rewards at each step of a phased denuclearization process if the North commits to a genuine “road map” toward fully abandoning its weapons program.
“We are not telling them to ‘denuclearize entirely first and then we will provide,’” Yoon said.
“What we are saying is that we will provide the things we can in correspondence to their steps if they only show a firm determination” toward denuclearization, he added.
Yoon has vowed to strengthen the South’s defenses through its alliance with the US by resuming large-scale military training that was canceled or downsized during the administration of former US president Donald Trump and to boosting the South’s missile defenses.
Some South Koreans have called for the reintroduction of tactical US nuclear weapons that were removed from the South in the 1990s, or for Seoul to pursue its own deterrent.
Yoon dismissed the possibility of the latter during the news conference, saying that Seoul would stay committed to an international treaty aimed at preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
“I believe the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] regime is a very important and necessary premise for permanent world peace,” Yoon said, expressing hope that the US’ deterrence strategy for its allies could evolve to counter the North’s growing threat.
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