South Korea needs nukes – Seoul mayor

South Korea must have a nuclear deterrent in order to keep its northern neighbor at bay at all times, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has said.

In a Facebook post on Friday, Oh denounced what he called “unbearable threats” against his city, referring to comments made by Kim Jong-un, who recently called South Korea a “hostile nation.” A photo released by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency showed the DPRK’s supreme leader conferring with his top officials over a map of Seoul.

Oh said he felt “anger” and “deep frustration” as he witnessed Pyongyang “repeatedly make threats” against his city, located just around 50km from the border. “North Korea has been sending trash-laden balloons across the border, causing property damage and fires in various places. Not long ago, they even bombarded areas right in front of our demilitarized zone and the east coast,” he said.

According to the mayor, North Korea has only dared to engage in those “brazen and provocative actions” because it possesses nuclear weapons, while South Korea does not, creating what he called an “asymmetric” situation.

“This is why we must urgently increase our nuclear deterrence capabilities… There is no other way to achieve peace than by strengthening national defense,” he said, without elaborating on how he plans to accomplish such a feat.

Oh has been one of the most high-profile South Korean politicians to advocate for Seoul acquiring a nuclear arsenal. However, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has said that the country does not seek to create its own nukes, reiterating his pledge to double efforts on honing a nuclear deterrence strategy with the US, which has provided Seoul with a nuclear umbrella since the 1950s.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have flared in recent weeks, with Pyongyang threatening to retaliate for what it says was a South Korean military drone that crashed on its soil. It has also blown up roads and rail lines on the border as part of the “phased complete separation” of the North and South, citing a “grave security situation.” The North has also accused the South of sending drones across the border to scatter leaflets full of “political propaganda and slander.”

North Korea has also repeatedly denounced South Korea’s joint military exercises with the US, viewing them as a preparation for a possible invasion.