Photo: People Power Party leader Jeong Jin-seok (right) addresses the party's committee for North Korean nuclear program. Credit: News1.
The ruling People Power Party 국민의힘 called for nuclear armament in response to North Korea’s nuclear threat. On November 23, the PPP’s special committee for the North Korean nuclear program, chaired by Assembly Member Han Gi-ho 한기호 국회의원, issued a report demanding a stronger response from the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
The report criticized the administration for “lacking a control tower” and “coming up short on practical measures to guarantee extended deterrence.” The report also characterized Yoon’s “audacious initiative 담대한 구상” as “not audacious at all” in its plan to provide aid to North Korea in exchange for merely beginning the denuclearization process.
The report called for (1) forward deployment of US nuclear assets; (2) strengthening the potential for nuclear armament; (3) adding a cyberattack element to South Korea’s retaliation options in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, and; (4) enhanced civilian response against a potential nuclear attack.
In particular, the report proposed “a secret project to secure the potential for nuclear armament” by studying “the optimal course for nuclear armament,” while staying within the bounds of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the US-ROK alliance.
