South Korea: Additional THAAD Launchers Being Deployed, President Says

[Swordsmyth]

South Korean President Moon Jae In said July 28 that additional Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers would be deployed to a base in South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported. Moon had earlier delayed the deployment of all planned THAAD batteries for an environmental impact assessment. Two THAAD launchers are currently in operation, and four others are stored at a nearby U.S military base.

More at: https://worldview.stratfor.com/situa...president-says

[goldenequity]

South Korea considers a nuclear arsenal to counter the North


“Trump’s ‘America-first’ policy has triggered this kind of public sentiment,” said Moon Chung In,
a top national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae In.
Trump also has wavered on his commitment to defending South Korea, he said,
including suggesting during the campaign that South Korea and Japan should develop their own nuclear arsenals.

While President Moon, a liberal who took office in May, does not support calls for South Korea to join the nuclear club,
polls show that a majority of South Koreans surveyed favor the idea.

Up until the early 1970s, South Korea was actively pursuing development of nuclear warheads.
But because of pressure from the United States, it abandoned those efforts in 1975,
when it signed the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Since then, it has relied on the deterrence capacity of the United States,
which has a stockpile of roughly 4,000 nuclear weapons.

Uncertainty about the U.S. commitment is emboldening South Koreans who want to pursue the nuclear option,
a move that Pinkston calls “reckless and dangerous.”

South Korea is home to more than 20 nuclear power plants,
and if it decided to pursue a nuclear weapons program,
it would have both the expertise and material to do so.

Still, it would be no simple task for South Korea to “go nuclear.”

Read more here:

[timosman]

In a hostile world everybody should have their own nukes. Depending on a flimsy alliance with world powers could turn out to be rather foolish.