SEOUL, May 30 (AJU PRESS) - A high-ranking U.S. official has brought up the idea of redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to Seoul as a deterrent against increasing threats from North Korea.
In a report released on Wednesday, Senator Roger Wicker, the top-ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services said, "North Korea continues to outpace expectations with respect to its nuclear and missile programs, with capabilities that can target the continental United States."
"Because there is no immediate diplomatic solution in sight, the United States must ensure that deterrence does not erode on the Korean Peninsula," he pointed out. "That means maintaining readiness with regular U.S.-[South Korean] military exercises, keeping a persistent U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula, and exploring new options - such as nuclear-sharing agreements in the Indo-Pacific and redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula - to bolster deterrence" in the region.
He also wrote, "International sanctions - which previously crippled the North Korean economy - are now ineffective because Russia and China refuse to implement them. Further North Korea's strategic alignment with Russia and China provide Pyongyang with a steady source of revenue, as North Korea now becomes a source of global instability well beyond the Korean Peninsula."
Wicker stressed that the U.S. must aggressively increase its defense budget to counter "severe near-term danger and the prospect of a protracted - even decades-long - military competition" with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, referring to them as the "emerging axis of aggressors."
He called for the U.S. to increase its defense budget by $55 billion to about $950 billion in the 2025 fiscal year.
The senator's proposal came after North Korea's failed attempt to launch a spy satellite into orbit early this week, followed by a series of provocations such as floating hundreds of large balloons carrying trash and waste into the South on Wednesday, and firing a barrage of short-range missiles the next day.
