U.S. Forces Korea personnel move around military vehicles at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 17, as South Korea and the United States begin the Ulchi Freedom Shield, a regular joint military exercise designed to prepare for the defense of the Korean Peninsula in the event of a contingency.YONHAP
Senior members of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) are joining calls for South Korea's own development of nuclear weapons, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he ordered a substantial reduction in joint military exercises.
“We need to prepare for the possibility that the United States could shift its policy from ‘dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons’ to ‘managing North Korea’s nuclear weapons,’” PPP Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun said Wednesday. “If that happens, the nuclear imbalance will become entrenched, destabilizing Korea’s security environment. We need to begin discussions on nuclear armament.”
“We should also negotiate to build nuclear-powered submarines and expand our rights to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel,” PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo said on the same day.
PPP Rep. Na Kyung-won said on Monday that “true peace can only be secured through our own strength.”
“We need to revise the South Korea-U.S. nuclear cooperation agreement to secure the right to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel and consider developing our own nuclear weapons, among other options,” Rep. Na said.
Apache helicopters sit at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 18 as the South Korea-U.S. Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise is underway.YONHAP
Calls have also emerged for South Korea to deploy troops to the U.S.-Iran war, which broke out in February.
“We should pursue a deployment to the Strait of Hormuz to strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance, provided that the safety of our troops is ensured and their mission is clearly defined,” Rep. Ahn said.
The ruling Democratic Party (DP) immediately pushed back against the PPP’s offensive.
“President Trump’s decision to scale back the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises is part of a peace plan aimed at eliminating the reasons for North Korea to possess nuclear weapons,” Rep. Park Sun-won of DP said. “Yet the PPP continues to accuse President Lee of begging North Korea for peace.”
South Korea's military authorities on Wednesday said it will curtail the duration and scale of the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint exercise, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS), at Washington's request.
The exercise, which began Monday, will be adjusted to run through Friday instead of the original Aug. 27. Some field training exercises — a core part of the drill — will also be scaled back, per the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The annual UFS exercise is one of the two major recurring South Korea-U.S. joint drills, along with the spring Freedom Shield exercise.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
