Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby’s review of U.S. nuclear strategy is generating nervousness in Seoul over whether or not US nuclear weapons might be deployed back into South Korea after an absence of more than three decades. South Korean experts told the Korea Times that a more likely scenario is that of closer coordination between U.S. nuclear forces and South Korea’s conventional military capabilities, while warning that making nuclear weapons more usable could also increase the risk of escalation on the Korean Peninsula.
Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, also said Washington’s move should not be directly linked to the return of nuclear weapons to South Korea. If the United States makes tactical nuclear weapons a more credible part of extended deterrence, Hong said, it could even weaken the argument that such weapons need to be physically stationed in South Korea. Instead, he said the change could have greater implications for conventional-nuclear integration, which seeks to link U.S. nuclear capabilities with South Korea’s conventional forces in a contingency.
Korea Times notes, however, that such a shift could carry new risks. A source familiar with the military described the greater reliance on tactical nuclear weapons as a “double-edged sword.”
