S. Korea reiterates nuke-free stance amid talk of redeploying US nukes to Korea

Published : Mar 7, 2017 - 16:23 Updated : Mar 7, 2017 - 16:23

South Korea will stick to its policy of keeping the Korean Peninsula free of any nuclear weapons, the foreign ministry said Tuesday, amid growing talk of the US' possible deployment of its tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea to tackle North Korea's nuclear threats.

"I am aware that the various opinions are laid out amid North Korea's ever-increasing nuclear threats," ministry spokesman Cho Jung-hyuck said in a press briefing, referring to a recent US news report that the Donald Trump administration is mulling over the nuclear redeployment on the Korean Peninsula.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck speaks during a press conference. (Yonhap)

The US Forces Korea had previously stationed tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea's potential attacks, but they were sent home in 1991 after the two Koreas agreed to make the peninsula free of any nuclear bombs.

But the North's advancement of its nuclear weapons program through five nuclear tests have given rise to a call to bring back the US tactical weapons in South Korea.

"Our government has been maintaining the policy line of denuclearization," the spokesman said.

Still, the issue is not something that the South Korean government needs to comment on publicly since the US is currently reviewing its policy toward North Korea, he noted. (Yonhap)