SOUTH KOREAN LAWMAKER SUGGESTS SEOUL DEVELOP NUKES TO DETER NORTH KOREA

Suggesting that for South Korea to “prevent the unthinkable” in escalating nuclear tensions with North Korea it must start “thinking the unthinkable,” a well-known lawmaker from Seoul said yesterday that the country should consider a series of extreme options, the most drastic being temporarily withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and starting up its own nuclear weapons program. He also suggested that the United States should return tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea as a “clear warning” to North Korea and a potential bargaining chip that could be used to get North Korea to give up its nuclear program. “Telling us not to consider any nuclear option is tantamount to telling us to simply surrender,” M.J. Chung, a member of South Korea’s National Assembly, said at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference. “Our goal is and will continue to be the denuclearization of the entire Korean peninsula. Let us put all the options on the table.”