South Korea to build nuclear bomb? Rumours rife as Seoul mulls reprocessing spent nuclear fuel

Is South Korea pursuing plans to develop a nuclear bomb? Speculations are rife after Seoul’s top envoy to the US said his country was pressing the US to allow South Korea to build and operate facilities to reprocess spent nuclear fuel. Ambassador Cho Hyun-dong said, “We will regard that as a priority that we will push for after a new US government takes office.”

What caused alarm among analysts?

While Seoul may say its primary objective is to produce fuel for nuclear power plants and nuclear-powered submarines at home, analysts fear the same fuel can be used to develop a nuclear bomb by extracting fissile material.

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South China Morning Post quoted Seong-chang, a senior researcher from the Sejong Institute, as saying that once South Korea gets access to the demanded facilities, it will be in a position to start production of nukes “in three to six months”.

“If South Korea has nuclear latency as Japan does, it would serve as a strong deterrence against North Korea, which resorts to nuclear threats so often,” said Chang while talking to reporters.

“But for nuclear warheads, South Korea has all the things needed to arm itself with its own nuclear weapons – delivery means, engineering and the [newly launched] strategic command,” he added.

Seoul has been facing an increased nuclear threat from North Korea but has only relied on the US nuclear umbrella for its defence.

Defence Minister Kim Yong-ho in August had stressed that South Korea was dependent on USA’s extended deterrence but he added that all other options were also open.

“However, if it is deemed difficult to deal with the North Korean nuclear threats, all other options are open”, he said.

Back in 2020, Minister Kim made headlines when he said his nation can’t survive without nuclear firepower.

“We cannot survive without nuclear weapons. If we are nuclear-armed, we can neutralise our neighbours’ nuclear weapons through the ‘balance of fear’,” he had said.

(With inputs from agencies)