Will South Korea Go Nuclear Next?

For more than a year, the Lee Administration has been talking about “closing the nuclear fuel cycle” with respect to the uranium it currently uses to produce electricity. Denials notwithstanding, I had concluded that President Lee had given up on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program, and worried that the limitations of America’s will weakened the sufficiency, in his mind, of the U.S. nuclear umbrella over which South Korea frets so much. But now, calls for South Korea to go nuclear are coming out into the open. This Joongang Ilbo editorial is the most prominent call I’ve seen so far. The call comes as the U.S. Joint Forces Command says that South Korea and Japan have the means to develop nuclear weapons quickly, should they choose to do so.

The recent history of American diplomacy and the widening differences between how Americans and South Koreans perceive their own interests does not inspire confidence. Since the idea of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula has been so much bong resin for the last 20 years, one can understand why South Korea may be ready to sacrifice the mantra of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula for the sake of restoring deterrence.