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►Observer.com Liu Chenghui

"The United States is questioned, and Koreans want their own 'nuclear umbrella'." Choe Sang-Hun, a South Korean reporter for the New York Times, wrote in an article on August 17 that South Korea has lived under the promise of nuclear protection from the United States for seventy years, but now more and more South Koreans believe that they should have their own nuclear weapons. He said that the agreement recently reached between North Korea and nuclear power Russia has made South Korea uneasy, and the United States has failed to curb the development of North Korea's nuclear arsenal, and even its own homeland is facing the latter's missile threat. Under such circumstances, many South Koreans no longer believe that the United States has the ability to protect them from attacks.

South Korean troops launch ballistic missiles during an exercise in 2017. South Korean Ministry of National Defense

Choi Sang-hoon mentioned in the article that as the United States promoted nuclear non-proliferation policies, South Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons program in the 1970s and chose to rely on the United States for defense. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea for decades. U.S. President Biden reiterated his commitment to nuclear protection for South Korea last year, and South Korea has long believed that ignoring the U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy and developing nuclear weapons is a taboo.