TOKYO (Sputnik) — US tactical nuclear weapons were removed from the country in late 1991 as part of Seoul’s denuclearization agreement with Pyongyang.
But Saenuri Party’s floor leader Won Yoo-cheol said the National Assembly should consider bringing US tactical nukes back or getting an own nuclear arsenal after the North conducted a nuclear test.
"We cannot borrow an umbrella from a neighbor every time it rains. We need to have a raincoat and wear it ourselves," the Yonhap national news agency cited Won as saying in a speech before the unicameral parliament.
Last week, Seoul suspended cooperation with Pyongyang at the jointly-run Kaesong industrial park following a launch of a long-range ballistic rocket in the North. In return, Pyongyang severed all emergency contact lines with the South.
Despite limited industrial cooperation, South and North Korea are still legally at war as no peace treaty between them was signed after the Korean War of 1950-1953.