The chief of the conservative main opposition party on Wednesday renewed his call for the redeployment of US tactical nuclear arms to South Korea, arguing a "nuclear alliance" would help deter a belligerent North Korea.

Hong Joon-pyo, the hawkish leader of the Liberty Korea Party, made the remarks in his Facebook post five days before he embarks on a five-day trip to Washington to drum up support for the redeployment.

"While the South Korea-US free trade agreement is an economic alliance, we have to forge a nuclear alliance through the re-dispatching of the tactical nukes so that we can prevent a war," he wrote.


Hong added he made the same remarks during his interview with the US cable news network CNN earlier in the day.

Tactical nukes refer to short-range nuclear arms designed to be used mostly on a single battlefield, as opposed to the strategic nuclear weapons with much higher yields that are delivered by strategic bombers and longer-range ballistic missiles with the aim to eliminate the adversary's will to fight.

Amid Pyongyang's continued provocations, including last month's nuclear test, the LKP has stressed the need for a "nuclear balance of power" with the wayward neighbor, which it says now enjoys a "nuclear monopoly."

The Seoul government has dismissed the call to reintroduce tactical nukes that were withdrawn from the country in 1991. It has stressed its nonproliferation principle and argued that the redeployment would make its rationale for the North's denuclearization crumble.

Critics suspect that the LKP's repeated calls for the redeployment and emphasis on its "security forte" carry political intentions to undercut liberal President Moon Jae-in's push for cross-border rapprochement and his security profile.

The calls for the tactical nukes have gained traction amid the North's accelerating push to develop a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US Some fear Washington could hesitate to immediately defend its ally under attack as military action could put its own territory at risk.

To address such concerns, the allies have been exploring measures to strengthen the credibility of America's "extended deterrence," the stated US commitment to defend its ally by mobilizing all military capabilities, nuclear and conventional, against the North's aggression. (Yonhap)