nonproliferation

South Korea briefly operated a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s before shutting it down and signing the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in return for “extended nuclear deterrence” from the U.S. — the promise that Washington would use its own nuclear arsenal to protect South Korea from such an attack.

Trump has similarly dismissed the U.S.-South Korea alliance as an unnecessary drag, suggesting during his first presidential campaign that he might encourage Seoul to build its own nuclear arsenal — a departure from Washington’s long-standing stance of nonproliferation.

More significantly, nuclear armament would first require South Korea to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — a move that Town said would probably result in international sanctions.

“So much has changed since the Ukraine war, with the nonproliferation regime once managed between China, Russia and the U.S. having been considerably weakened,” he said.

As Sneider notes, this would be a “sharp departure” from Russia’s age-old policy on nuclear nonproliferation.