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Seoul downplays North Korean nuclear status

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: South Korea has, in its Defence White Paper, downplayed the status of ethnic neighbour North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. The biennial paper rated North Korea's "conventional military strength" above its recent nuclear-weapon test in a short list of "serious threats."

North Korea's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities were cited as the third aspect of the "threats" to South Korea.

Pyongyang's "deployment of its armaments along the frontline" on the inter-Korean border was listed next.

According to the paper, North Korea was estimated to have stockpiled, during the last three years, sufficient quantities of plutonium for making at least five atomic weapons.

This was still reckoned to place it outside the domain of a full-fledged nuclear-armed state.

Even Pyongyang's first nuclear-weapon test on October 9, 2006, was seen as a "partial success."

Reflective of Seoul's continuing efforts to salvage its "sunshine policy" of engaging Pyongyang for reconciliation and eventual unification, the paper did not project North Korea as the South's prime adversary.

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