Korea needs no nuclear weapons: White House official

Neither South Korea's own nuclear armament nor redeployment of US nuclear weapons in the country would enhance the country's security against North Korea, a senior White House official said Wednesday.

"I don't believe that North Korea will be any more deterred from taking military action against the South if we have nuclear weapons on the peninsula because North Korea, China, the rest of the world know that we have military capabilities, conventional and otherwise, that can be launched from the United States and elsewhere," Jon Wolfsthal, senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the White House's National Security Council, told reporters.

The North's fifth nuclear test earlier this month has given rise to greater calls in South Korea for the country's own nuclear armament, with not only lawmakers of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party, but also members of liberal opposition parties making the pro-nuclear weapons case.

The government of President Park Geun-hye has rejected such an idea as running against the principle of a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons. Officials also say it would have negative effects on efforts to end the North's nuclear programs.

"The long-standing view in the United States is that we together are more than capable of defending South Korea and Japan against any conceivable threat from any country, that we always have the full range of capabilities available to us if necessary," Wolfsthal said.

"We think it's not in our interest and in South Korea's interest for South Korea to pursue nuclear weapons," he said. "They are voluntarily and legally bound under the nonproliferation treaty in a way that benefits them greatly and something that forms a backbone of our alliance." (Yonhap)