Seoul officials and experts cautioned against the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula proposed by some in the United States, which they fear could refuel an atomic arms race in Northeast Asia.

The U.S. House Armed Services Committee on Thursday approved an amendment to the fiscal 2013 national defense authorization bill that calls for the re-introduction of the sensitive weapons to South Korea, according to the diplomacy publication Foreign Policy.

While the South Korean government is not openly criticizing the idea, concerned ministries say that Seoul remains fundamentally in favor of denuclearization of the peninsula and that such developments will bring little security benefits for Seoul.

“There are no changes in our stance about denuclearization of the peninsula, and redeploying tactical nuclear weapons here will not bring any new deterrent effects,” a Ministry of National Defense official said.

Similar views were echoed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Unification.

In a press briefing Monday, Foreign Ministry officials said that while the ministry had no official view about the issue, the government’s stance on denuclearization has not changed since 1992 and Seoul and Washington have not reached any new agreements that would affect the issue. In 1992, the two Koreas adopted the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula that states that the two Koreas will not develop nor hold any nuclear weapons.

However, experts say that related developments are fueled by more than North Korea and its nuclear ambitions.

“The U.S. concentrating its military resources on the Asia Pacific is all aimed at keeping China in check, but North Korea is providing the pretext for redeploying tactical nuclear weapons in the South,” Kim Jong-dae, editor-in-chief of the military journal Defense 21, said.

He added that although unlikely, redeploying nuclear weapons in the South is tantamount to reverting to the Cold War and that such a situation could not be justified by any amount of security benefits.

“But the U.S. does not have any nuclear weapons outside the U.S, and the cost of maintaining nuclear weapons makes overseas deployment impractical. In addition, with the Obama administration strongly supporting denuclearization, there is no chance that tactical nuclear weapons will come back to Korea.”

However, experts say that in the military sense, deploying tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea could have significant impact on the peninsula.

“It is unclear how North Korea would react, but it is true tactical nuclear weapons would act as a very strong deterrent,” Yang Uk, senior research fellow at Korea Defense and Security Forum.

He added that North Korea had been able to “bluff” in international relations partly because there are no physical aspects of the U.S. nuclear umbrella present in the South.

“The developments are likely to be part of political maneuvering in the U.S., but voicing such possibilities is an expression of the U.S.’ intention to respond strongly to relevant North Korean actions,” Yang said.

Yang also said that although the U.S. had the ability to take nuclear action against the North without having such weapons in South Korea, deploying tactical nuclear weapons here could shorten the response time, which could prove crucial in a war.

Tactical nuclear weapons being deployed in South Korea has some support from the country’s conservatives, including presidential hopeful Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the ruling Saenuri Party.

On May 6, Chung said that North Korea’s nuclear program was a violation of the 1992 joint declaration that warrants “fundamental reassessment” of deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and the transfer of war time command to the South Korean forces from the U.S. Forces Korea.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)