South Korea's Indigenous Nuclearization

Cheong Seong-Chang

(softpower@sejong.org)

Director of the Center for North Korean Studies,

The Sejong Institute

   North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities have been rapidly advancing, and since 2022, the country’s nuclear threat against South Korea has become more blatant than ever. Against this backdrop, the possibility of “denuclearization of North Korea through negotiations” has become slim, and the confidence in the U.S. extended deterrence continues to weaken as North Korea’s ICBM capabilities keep advancing. Therefore, it is now necessary for Seoul to escape from the fear of Pyongyang’s nuclear threat through its own nuclearization. If the DPRK conducts its 7th nuclear test, the South Korean government should first withdraw from the NPT and then secure nuclear potential through revision of the ROK-U.S. Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

   If a new U.S. administration, which has a relatively open position on South Korea’s indigenous nuclearization, is inaugurated, that is the time when the latter should move in the direction of its own nuclear weapons development. The older generations of the ROK should not let future generations continue to live with nuclear weapons on their heads. If South Korean government continues to respond to North Korea’s nuclear weapons with non-nuclear measures, the suffering of future generations will become even greater in a situation where they may be forced to serve longer due to a sharp decrease in the number of people enlisted in the military due to the population cliff.