Seoul, April 21: South Korea on Wednesday ruled out redeploying US atomic weapons on its territory in response to North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
“It can never be our option,” Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan said at a lecture.
“Redeployment of nuclear deterrence must be dealt with within the framework of a global security and in that regard, a policy coordination with the United States as part of its global nuclear strategy is crucial,” he said.
US tactical nuclear weapons were reportedly pulled out of South Korea in the early 1990s, although US military maintains a policy of “neither confirm nor deny” on the existence of nuclear weapons in certain regions.
US President Barack Obama has pledged to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons, and earlier this month hosted a 47-nation summit in Washington on stopping atomic materials falling into the hands of extremists.
South Korea will host the next major nuclear summit in 2012, and Yu said he hoped the occasion would be used to pressure Pyongyang.
“The summit will serve as the last message or warning to North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. This will be the last chance for the North to do so,” he said.
North Korea has “between one and six nuclear weapons,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said this month.
The North last year stormed out of six-nation talks in which it had agreed to end its nuclear programme in return for security guarantees and aid.
On Tuesday, Yu warned that the stalled six-party talks would not resume if Seoul finds the communist state was involved in the sinking of one of its warships.
The downing of a 1,200-tonne corvette in the Yellow Sea last month after a mystery blast has heightened cross-border tensions, with suspicions hanging over North Korea, although Seoul has not directly accused Pyongyang.
—Agencies