South Korean nuclear weapons would fracture US ties, defence chief says

SEOUL — South Korea could rupture its US alliance and shock financial markets if it started building nuclear weapons, Defence Minister Shin Won-sik told Reuters, dismissing renewed domestic calls for the country's own arsenal to deter North Korea.

As the neighbouring North rapidly expands nuclear and missile capabilities, more South Korean officials and members of President Yoon Suk-yeol's conservative ruling party have called for developing nuclear weapons in recent months.

The prospect of another term for former US president Donald Trump, who complained about the cost of the US military presence in South Korea and launched unprecedented talks with the North, has further fuelled the debate.

But Shin, a former three-star army general who also served as a lawmaker in Yoon's party, said having a home-grown nuclear arsenal risked devastating fallout to the South's diplomatic standing and economy, akin to what analysts called Black Monday this week for the stock market's worst losses since 2008.

"You'll face a huge crack in the US alliance, and if we withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, it would bring various penalties, starting with an immediate shock in our financial market," he said in an interview.

Shin acknowledged that the debate among politicians and foreign policy experts was a sign that many South Koreans were still anxious about American extended deterrence — the US military capability, especially its nuclear forces.

But the allies' push to strengthen that deterrence is the "easiest, most effective and peaceful" way to counter the North's threats, he said.

Paradigm shift

Intensifying strategic rivalry between the United States and China and the Ukraine war have triggered a sweeping shift in the