Should South Korea ‘scare Kim’ with US nuclear bombs? ‘China and Russia would raise hell’

Bruce W. Bennett, a senior analyst with the Rand Corporation, made the suggestion at a security forum in Seoul on Thursday, citing a proposal the US think tank first made in a joint report with the South Korean Asan Institute for Policy Studies last year.

These bombs would serve “both symbolic and operational purposes” as part of a proposed deployment of roughly 180 US nuclear weapons to South Korea over “the next few years”, said the report.

Bennett said at Thursday’s forum that South Korea pays to modernise about 100 of the old tactical nuclear weapons the US has earmarked for dismantling. These could then be stored in the US and brought to South Korea if the North were to attack, he said.

The US last deployed tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea in the 199os and there have been growing calls for their return. But Bennett said renovating the ageing storage facilities in South Korea would prove costly.

China would also likely protest against such a move, he said, citing Beijing’s earlier objections to Seoul’s plans for a US THAAD anti-missile air defence system.

A poll conducted in South Korea at the turn of the year found nine out of 10 respondents thought it would be impossible to denuclearise North Korea, with 73 per cent saying South Korea should develop its own nuclear weapons. The poll commissioned by the Chey Institute for Advanced Studies was conducted by Gallup Korea between December 15 and January 10.

But South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons would constitute a massive expense. Bennett said it would be more economical for Seoul to finance the modernisation of 100 US tactical nuclear weapons, at an estimated cost of 3 trillion won (US$2.2 billion), than spend 1 trillion won on one self-developed weapon.

Un