A former US Forces Korea commander said Monday he is not convinced that South Korea will be more secure if it has its own nuclear arms, amid lingering voices calling for the Asian country to consider its own nuclear option to counter advancing North Korean threats.
Vincent Brooks, who led the 28,500-strong USFK from 2016-2018, made the remarks, underscoring that America's extended deterrence commitment is an approach to preventing the use of nuclear weapons as opposed to promoting the use of nuclear arms.
Extended deterrence means the United States' commitment to using the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend its ally.
"I am not convinced that South Korea will be more secure by having nuclear weapons," Brooks said.
He recalled a time decades ago when domestic turmoil emerged as Western European countries were debating their possession of nuclear arms and the positioning of US nuclear weapons systems on their territories.
"Domestic terrorism groups began to attack government or actions and US actions, and facilities in these locations. Security went down as a result of that," he said.
"I know that first-hand. South Korea needs to think through that, and not presume that because they can't be certain or because North Korea has them, and they now need to have a parallel capability as a matter of saving face, that that's going to increase their security."
The retired general claimed that Pyongyang's nuclear program has heightened the potential for the end of its regime.
"While they (North Korea) have certainly pursued a deterrent structure by having nuclear weapons and have had some success at that, the potential of the destruction of the regime is higher because of the nuclear weapons," he said.
"They might have been tolerable if they didn't have them. If they happened to use them, several administrations, including the current one, have made it very clear that regime is going to go away."
His remarks came amid questions over whether the Trump administration would keep the Nuclear Consultative Group, the allies' key nuclear deterrence body launched in 2023 as part of efforts to reinforce the credibility of the US' extended deterrence.
In a recent report released by the Atlantic Council, a US-headquartered think tank, more than 40 percent of strategists and foresight practitioners predicted that South Korea will have nuclear weapons within the next decade, while nearly a quarter of them expected North Korea to use nuclear arms within the next 10 years. (Yonhap
