Nuclear security

Has South Korea renounced “nuclear hedging”?

South Korea’s freshly inaugurated President Moon Jae-in seems committed to phasing out nuclear power. During his campaign, he promised to close operating nuclear plants, suspend construction of two nuclear reactors (Shin Kori No. 5 and Shin Kori No. 6, which are about 30 percent complete), and scrap plans to construct eight additional nuclear power plants—with a goal of cutting the country’s 25 nuclear reactors to zero over the next 40 years. He also pledged to reconsider the research program on pyroprocessing technology to recycle nuclear spent fuel, which was launched in 1997 to mitigate the country’s nuclear waste problem. A little over a month into his presidency, on June 18, Moon permanently shut down the country’s oldest nuclear reactor, Kori No. 1.

The nonproliferation community may hail the Moon administration’s nuclear-free energy policy, as some view South Korea as a potential nuclear weapons aspirant given the nuclear weapons tests and threats coming from its northern neighbor. The nonproliferation community has been concerned about pressure in South Korea to acquire nuclear weapons for many decades, because a nuclear weapons development program was initiated in the 1970s, because South Korean public opinion has recently run in favor of nuclear weapons, and because the government has stated its intentions to acquire enrichment and reprocessing capabilities.