Seoul’s defense chief on Monday stated that South Korea is capable of a pre-emptive strike against North Korea, as Seoul and Washington struggle to find a viable solution to Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile ambitions.

In a meeting with lawmakers at the National Assembly, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said Seoul could use its ingenious pre-emptive strike scheme -- such as “Kill Chain” -- to carry out an attack when a military attack by the North looks imminent.

“It’s more like changing the operational concept. You can see it that way,” Song said when asked about whether South Korea could change its defense policy to allow for unilateral attacks. “Defense reform plans include kill chain. We will continue to push for it”

But Song stressed that “there is no way” to implement a plan for a pre-emptive strike, denying media reports that the military is working on such a scheme under the instructions of President Moon Jae-in.

The remark came amid rising concern over North Korea’s two ICBM launches in July. The latest missile fired Friday is thought to be capable of reaching the West Coast of the US, a milestone that Washington had long declared it would not tolerate.

Song also said the South would consider introducing nuclear-powered submarines in order to beef up Seoul’s deterrence capability against the North, which is presumed to be inching closer to mounting nuclear warheads on an ICBM.

Regarding President Moon Jae-in’s order to deploy the remaining four launchers of a US advanced missile to its battery site, Song said the government could “reconsider” the plan, depending on the result of an environmental assessment of the site.

“When we are talking about temporary deployment, it means that we can reconsider the plan if the people feel nervous about it,” Song told the lawmakers. “The reason why I used ‘temporary deployment’ is that North Korea crossed the red line too soon.”

President Moon called for the deployment of the remaining four launchers of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery’s total six launchers, reversing his previous decision to suspend the deployment until an environmental assessment is made.

Song asserted that most US citizens believe North Korea crossed a “red line” by firing an ICBM capable of reaching the western parts of the US mainland, describing the concept of a red line as “diplomatic rhetoric” used by US presidents.

“We have not set a specific standard for the red line. It’s more about diplomatic rhetoric used by US presidents,” he said.

Meanwhile, the allies are seeking to hold a meeting of their defense ministers at an early date to discuss North Korea’s ICBM threats, government officials said Monday.

The two sides are pushing for the first meeting between Defense Minister Song Myoung-moo and his US counterpart Jim Mattis before the allies’ annual Security Consultative Meeting slated for October, the officials added. 


By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)