N.Korea Triggers Nuclear Arms Race in Northeast Asia

The U.S. Defense Department plans to assess the strategic value of deploying additional conventional and nuclear weapons to the West Pacific to submit a report to Congress in June as required under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013. The west Pacific region covers South Korea, Japan and Guam.

Section 1046 of the act stipulates that the defense secretary in consultation with the secretary of state is to report on the issue "to ensure the presence" in the West Pacific "of a robust conventional and nuclear capability, including a forward-deployed nuclear capability... in response to the ballistic missile and nuclear weapons developments of North Korea and the other belligerent actions North Korea has made against allies" of the U.S.

It in short pressures the Obama administration to respond in kind to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.

The U.S. had deployed so-called tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula since the late 1950s but pulled them all out following the 1992 Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "Tactical" nuclear weapons refer to bombs with destructive capabilities ranging between 0.1 and several hundred kilotons of TNT to destroy enemy weapons, military positions and armed forces within reachable areas, while bigger "strategic" nuclear bombs can decimate entire cities.

Rep. Trent Franks, who spearheaded the legislation, plans to hold a congressional hearing once the Pentagon submits its report.

The U.S. agreed with the former Soviet Union in 1991 to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, and the Obama administration’s top international priority is to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. It is therefore unclear whether tactical nuclear weapons will really be redeployed on the Korean Peninsula.

Since its third nuclear test in February, North Korea has threatened to launch nuclear attacks against South Korea and the U.S. It has even devised a law legitimizing its use of nuclear weapons. These threats have played into the hands of Japanese attempts to bolster its military and raised calls within South Korea for Seoul to acquire its own nuclear weapons. North Korea's belligerence is threatening Northeast Asia into a nuclear tinderbox.

Chosunilbo