S Korean Prime Minister Rules Out Nukes Amid Calls for Nuclear Capability
08:48 18.02.2016(updated 09:00 18.02.2016)
South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn ruled out on Thursday building or deploying nuclear weapons to the country amid a heated debate in the parliament, local media said.
TOKYO (Sputnik) – South Korean politicians have been actively exploring a possibility of procuring nuclear weapons after the North tested a hydrogen bomb and launched a long-range rocket earlier this year.
'It is the government's basic position that the nuclear armament is not permitted,' the prime minister stressed, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
Speaking at the National Assembly meeting, South Korea's ruling party policy chief Kim Jung-hoon urged the government to consider ways of building a nuclear bomb, such as pyroprocessing spent nuclear fuel.
This would allow the South to obtain sufficient capabilities to build a bomb at any time without violating a nuclear deal with Washington, which bans Seoul from reprocessing and enriching nuclear fuel.
Earlier this week, Won Yoo-chul, the floor leader of South Korea's ruling party, called on the national legislature to allow for US tactical nukes to be brought back amid rising tensions with the North.
US tactical nuclear weapons were removed from the country in late 1991 as part of Seoul's denuclearization agreement with Pyongyang.
© Sputnik
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