NATO chief: Nuclear deterrence still has extremely important task to fulfil

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on January 30 that efforts for nuclear deterrence by South Korea and the US helped nonproliferation, and such readiness to deter aggression is required as long as authoritarian powers do not relinquish their control over atomic weapons.

At a roundtable held in Seoul, the chief of the 30-member military alliance based in Brussels, Belgium, described a world split between like-minded countries sharing such values as freedom and democracy and those endorsing authoritarian rules, such as Russia, China, and North Korea, Korea Herald reports.

“So we think that as long as nuclear weapons exist, especially as long as we see that authoritarian powers are having them and actually investing heavily in modernizing them, as we see what China is doing and increasing the number of weapons and the range and also what North Korea is doing, then nuclear deterrence still has an extremely important task to fulfil," Stoltenberg said.

The NATO chief, who discussed expanding ties to curb North Korea’s aggression with Foreign Minister Park Jin on January 27, the first day of his two-day trip, did not offer specifics about how to bolster the kind of “extended deterrence” Seoul has maintained with Washington, its chief ally. The term refers to US support involving its nuclear umbrella and strategic assets like bombers and fighters, all meant to prevent outside aggression, including North Korea, South Korea’s biggest threat.

Bringing closure to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Stoltenberg noted, is in the interest of every country that seeks democracy, because a failure to do so sets a precedent that authoritarian countries can use force to get their way. Military support for Ukraine, like weapons and ammunition, is the best way to ensure “tyranny does not prevail,” according to Stoltenberg.

He has accused North Korea of funnelling weapons to Russia, a claim Pyongyang strongly disputes.

Stoltenberg added South Korea should not be overly economically dependent on China, a country he described as posing a “challenge” to the world. The NATO chief cited a German example where Russia had taken Berlin hostage as Moscow threatened to cut gas supplies to the EU member country.