South Korea's president hints at nuclear armament during meeting

South Korea's president Yoon Suk Yeol raised the possibility of nuclear armament at a government meeting, reported South Korean broadcasters on Thursday.

Peace on the Korean peninsula can only be maintained through its own strength, Yoon told Defence Minister Lee Jong Sup on Wednesday at a meeting between the country's Defence and and Foreign Ministry about its defence strategy, in particular against North Korea, in 2023.

"If the threat from North Korea's nuclear weapons programme becomes greater, we could station [US] tactical nuclear weapons here in South Korea or have nuclear weapons ourselves," said Yoon.

South Korea's leader continued by saying that history has shown that countries which rely on a "false peace" cannot survive. "Those who seek peace through strength will continue to exist," he added.

The ministry tried to clarify Yoon's statements on Thursday. South Korea's president had not been calling for nuclear armament, Deputy Defence Minister Shin Beom Chul told public broadcaster KBS.

Rather, Shin continued, the president had referred to South Korea's extended deterrence strategy with the United States, in which the U.S. pledged to defend South Korea using the "full range" of its military capabilities - including nuclear weapons - in case of conflict.

The president had thus called for closer defence cooperation with the U.S., Shin concluded.

Pyongyang has recently conducted a string of missile tests, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Observers fear Pyongyang's first nuclear test in years may be imminent.

South Korea and the U.S. have since resumed full-scale joint military exercises.

The tensions rekindled the discussion in South Korea about nuclear armament.

South Korea is currently one of the signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and the technologies needed to produce them. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003.