Seoul's statements on nuke weapons are due to China's refusal to limit arsenal - expert

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's statements on nuclear weapons are due, among other things, to China's refusal to limit its nuclear arsenal at this stage, former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said.

"If the nuclear weapon states, China in this case, are refusing to constrain their nuclear weapons, then countries in their neighbourhood will get nervous and begin to talk about acquiring nuclear weapons of their own," the retired American diplomat told TASS on January 12.

According to her, "tendency is at the heart of the basic bargain of the Non-Proliferation Treaty." "Soviet leaders decided [at the time] it was more in their security interest to constrain their nuclear weapons at the negotiating table than to see Germany acquire nuclear weapons. Germany, in turn, eschewed nuclear weapons as long as the nuclear states - principally the USSR and the US - were negotiating," Gottemoeller said.

"I fear this basic bargain may soon be lost; if it is, we will see more nuclear proliferation," the expert warned, commenting on remarks made by Yoon Suk-yeol, who previously said that South Korea could host another state's tactical nuclear weapons or develop its own if the situation in the region deteriorated because of North Korea's nuclear program.

Gottemoeller served as NATO Deputy Secretary General from 2016 to 2019. Prior to that (2012-2016), she was US Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security. Gottemoeller led a team of US negotiators who worked with their Russian counterparts on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START III). Gottemoeller is a lecturer and researcher at Stanford University in California.