Seoul push for return of US tactical nukes

South Korea has responded to Sunday's nuclear test by holding military drills close to the border with North Korea. Photo / AP

South Korea's Defence Minister said yesterday it was worth reviewing the redeployment of American tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula to guard against the North, a step that analysts warn would sharply increase the risk of an accidental conflict.

As concerns deepened following North Korea's huge nuclear test on Sunday, Nikki Haley, the United States' ambassador to the United Nations, said the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was "begging for war". In Seoul, the Defence Ministry warned that Pyongyang might be preparing to launch another missile into the Pacific Ocean, perhaps an intercontinental ballistic missile theoretically capable of reaching the mainland United States.

President Donald Trump and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae In, agreed in a phone call to remove the limit on allowed payloads for South Korean missiles - something Seoul had been pushing for - as a way to increase deterrence against North Korea, according to a statement from South Korea's Blue House.

They agreed as well to work together to punish North Korea for Sunday's nuclear test, pledging "to strengthen joint military capabilities", a White House statement said, and to "maximise pressure on North Korea using all means at their disposal".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, told reporters in China that the escalating crisis could cause a "planetary catastrophe". "Ramping up military hysteria in such conditions is senseless; it's a dead end," he said. "It could lead to a global, planetary catastrophe and a huge loss of human life. There is no other way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, save that of peaceful dialogue."

United Nations U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Photo / AP

At a UN Security Council meeting, Haley pressed for the "strongest possible" sanctions against the North. The Administration plans to circulate a new sanctions draft this week. Haley did not spell out how she would overcome the objections of veto-wielding permanent members China and Russia.

But she cautioned, "War is never something the United States wants. We don't want it now. But our country's patience is not unlimited. We will defend our allies and our territory."

Haley ruled out the "freeze for freeze" proposal backed by China and Russia, which would suspend US joint military exercises with South Korea in return for suspension of North Korean nuclear and missile tests.

"When a rogue regime has a nuclear weapon and an ICBM pointed at you, you do not take steps to lower your guard. No one would do that. We certainly won't," she said.

Instead, she reiterated a White House threat from Sunday to cut off trade with any countries that also trade with North Korea. That would presumably include China, with which the United States had nearly US$650 billion ($906.3b) worth of trade in goods and services last year.

"The United States will look at every country that does business with North Korea as a country that is giving aid to their reckless and dangerous nuclear intentions."

Her remarks appeared to be unpersuasive. "China will never allow chaos and war" in Korea, said Liu Jieyi, the Chinese ambassador to the UN. Sanctions alone would not solve the crisis, said Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.

Earlier, South Korean Defence Minister Song Young Moo said that he asked his American counterpart, Jim Mattis, during talks last week that strategic assets such as US aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and B-52 bombers be sent to South Korea more regularly. "I told him that it would be good for strategic assets to be sent regularly to the Korean Peninsula and that some South Korean lawmakers and media are strongly pushing for tactical nuclear weapons [to be redeployed]," Song told a parliamentary hearing, without disclosing Mattis's response.

South Korean President Moon Jae In. Photo / AP

A poll that YTN, a cable news channel, commissioned in August found that 68 per cent of respondents said they supported bringing tactical nuclear weapons back to South Korea.

"The redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons is an alternative worth a full review," Song said, echoing a position closely associated with conservatives in South Korea but not with progressives like Moon, who was elected President in May after vowing to engage with the North.

The US had about 100 nuclear-armed weapons, including short-range artillery, stationed in South Korea until 1991. Then President George H.W. Bush signed the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives and withdrew all tactical nuclear weapons that had been deployed abroad.

After the Defence Minister spoke at the hearing, the South Korean President's office said that it was not considering redeploying tactical nuclear weapons.

Military experts in the US are almost universally opposed to the idea of deploying strategic or tactical weapons in South Korea.

"The thing that most concerns me about redeployment is that it introduces more room for miscalculation or unintended escalation," said Catherine Dill of the Centre for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California.

But a growing number of policymakers in Seoul say that Guam is too far away and that, if the South comes under attack from North Korea, it can't wait the two-plus hours it would take American bombers to arrive from their base in the Pacific.

"We need these strategic or tactical assets that can destroy North Korea's nuclear-capable missiles before they can inflict harm on us," said Chun Yung Woo, a former South Korean national security adviser.

"Right now they can retaliate, but by that time, tens of thousands of people might have been killed," Chun said.

South Korea has been flexing its military muscles in response to North Korea's provocations, practising for strikes on the North Korean nuclear test site at Punggye-ri.

The Defence Ministry also said it had seen signs of preparation for another North Korean ballistic missile launch.