Bolton calls for redeploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea

On Tuesday, former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton suggested redeploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea to send a message to North Korea and quell South Korean calls for bomb development.

Bolton’s comments came as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington to explore measures to boost confidence in U.S. extended deterrence, the American nuclear umbrella safeguarding allies.

As North Korea works to improve its nuclear missiles, Yoon’s party leaders are pressing for Seoul to develop its own nuclear programs.

Bolton said re-stationing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons will reassure South Koreans and warn Pyongyang.

“Having tactical nuclear weapons back on the peninsula would be clear evidence of our resolve and determination to deter North Korea,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asan Institute for Policy Studies seminar in Seoul.

“Redeploying the tactical weapons does not preclude South Korea from getting its own capability, but it may give us some time to think about whether we really want that,” he added.

South Korea received US tactical nuclear weapons in 1958 and removed them in 1991. It has since pledged to defend its important Asian ally using all of America’s capabilities.

After taking office in May, Yoon reversed his campaign promise to seek the US to return nuclear weapons to South Korea. In November, Lee Jong-sup, Seoul’s defence minister, denied such a plan.

Yoon told Reuters last week that developing nuclear weapons violates the nuclear non-proliferation pact, but he was seeking to increase Seoul’s participation in U.S. extended deterrence.

Bolton said South Koreans’ reservations about U.S. extended deterrence are “perfectly legitimate” but that building its own weapons would undermine the global non-proliferation regime and start a regional nuclear race.

He suggested Seoul, Washington, and Tokyo form a trilateral nuclear consultative structure like NATO’s Nuclear Planning organization or a “collective self-defence” organization that could include Taiwan.

“South Korea can help create a structure of collective self-defence in East Asia or the Indo Pacific more broadly,” Bolton added. “The safer we are the more people can look at their mutual interests not just on the nuclear side but against states like China and North Korea.”