US Wants to Return Nuclear Weapons to Korea

American congressmen want President Barack Obama to redeploy Washington’s tactical nuclear weaponry on South Korean territory. The reason for this move is Pyongyang’s behavior. Despite international pressure, for the last several years Pyongyang has conducted nuclear tests as well as long-range missile launches. South Korean media outlets reported on this with a link to the American journal Foreign Policy.

As the publication notes, the House Armed Services Committee, which is dominated by conservative Republicans, has already adopted an amendment to provide for an increase in Washington’s military spending with the goal of returning tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula. Recall that the U.S. withdrew this class of weaponry from the South’s territory in 1991, when Seoul and Pyongyang signed a declaration on nuclear disarmament. At the moment, the permanent American military contingent in South Korea numbers 28,500 men. Furthermore, the U.S. guarantees to protect South Korea under its nuclear umbrella.

It appears that the American hawks are fed up with watching how Pyongyang steadily develops its missile and nuclear program despite international pressure. In 2006 and 2009 North Korea conducted nuclear tests. The last launch of a long-distance carrier rocket was carried out in April of this year, and provoked strong criticism from the international community. Americans also don’t like that Beijing does not really try to limit Pyongyang’s dangerous ambitions, or, at minimum, that Beijing avoids using tough measures to pressure North Korea. “We in the last many years have appealed to China to help us negotiate with North Korea to bring them in line in the quest for peace in the world… In fact, China has now embarked on selling nuclear components to North Korea,” stated Republican Trent Franks during a committee meeting. Franks is the main ideologue of the initiative to redeploy U.S. nukes to Korea.

It should be noted that among South Korean right-wingers in recent years, louder voices are heard in favor of returning American atomic weapons to the Korean peninsula. According to their logic, this will be an additional deterrent to Pyongyang’s provocations and it will ensure the security of the South. This week, Chung Mong-joon, the influential leader of Saenuri, South Korea’s ruling party, explicitly discussed in a conversation with foreign journalists the viability of “considering the return of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons.”

Nevertheless, the congressional initiative, while it is important as a signal of an altered mood in the U.S., does not in any way mean that the Obama administration agrees with this proposal. In expert’s opinions, Obama, at least until the presidential elections, will not support the redeployment of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula. This would mean not only rejecting the region’s nuclear-free status, but also Obama’s acknowledgement that his plan for global nuclear disarmament has failed. “Our policy remains in support of a non-nuclear Korean peninsula,” Robert Jensen, deputy spokesman for the National Security Council, told Yonhap News Agency after the Samore comments. “There is no plan to change that policy. Tactical nuclear weapons are unnecessary for the defense of South Korea and we have no plan or intention to return them.” On the other hand, Korean media outlets admit that they could not get a comment about the initiative from official U.S. representatives.