Oh Se-hoon: "South Korea Should Also Possess Nuclear Weapons"

Exclusive Interview with Reuters
Spread of South Korea's 'Independent Nuclear Armament Theory'

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon stated, "The time is approaching when South Korea must possess nuclear weapons," and added, "The argument that we should also have nuclear weapons will gradually gain strength (in the international community)."

According to Seoul City on the 13th, Mayor Oh recently responded this way in an interview with Reuters when asked, "In a situation where North Korea's intention to target South Korea with tactical nuclear weapons is becoming concrete, what aspects of security would you like to see improved?"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Mayor Oh said, "Watching the Ukraine war, we see that the nature of the conflict unfolds very differently between nuclear-armed countries and those without nuclear weapons," and argued that unlike Russia, Ukraine's inability to attack the opponent's territory is due to the 'psychological disadvantage' of being a non-nuclear state.

He continued, "Only five years ago, the idea of our government independently developing nuclear weapons was taboo, but now, with North Korea succeeding in miniaturizing and lightening tactical nuclear weapons and it becoming almost accepted that they possess several dozen nuclear warheads, although the exact number is uncertain, it is becoming difficult to persuade the public with the logic that we must refrain from developing nuclear weapons ourselves due to the justification of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

He added, "If North Korea continues to threaten with nuclear weapons repeatedly, domestic public opinion is very likely to increasingly lean toward developing our own nuclear weapons. At first, there may be some resistance from the international community, but I believe the argument that we should also have nuclear weapons will gain more and more strength."

Mayor Oh also said, "I hope this message is clearly conveyed to North Korea and China, which in fact exerts the greatest influence over North Korea, and that it becomes a useful message to restrain North Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.