Seoul, January 20: South Korea would launch a pre-emptive strike against North Korea to thwart any nuclear attack by the communist state, Seoul’s defence chief said today.
“We would have to strike right away if we detected a clear intention to attack (South Korea) with nuclear weapons,” Defence Minister Kim Tae-Young told a forum, according to Yonhap news agency.
“It would be too late and the damage would be too big if, in the case of a North Korean nuclear attack, we had to cope with the attack.”
Kim made similar remarks in 2008 when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
North Korea reacted angrily at the time, temporarily expelling South Korean officials from a Seoul-funded industrial park at Kaesong just north of the heavily fortified border.
International efforts to bring North Korea back to six-party nuclear disarmament talks have so far made little headway.
–Agencies