South Korean Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

gelgoog said:

South Korea and Japan are countries which have breakout nuclear weapons capability. Both of them had laser uranium enrichment programs at one point. Both have extensive civilian nuclear industries. And they have the solid rocket technology to make the delivery systems.

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No one doubts their ability to do so but I doubt they are interested in economic suicide, then again, they have been making a lot of decisions that were close. If they decide to do so, there will be consequences and unlike the US, China can actually cause some damage and isn't so reserved towards them.

Aniah said:

Yeah, no. Doing so is simply asking for trouble from China. Actually, forget China, the rest of Asia, and the US itself won't allow this to ever happen. SK living in a fantasy land like always. As for Japan, doing so would warrant China initiating war against them.

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US is the single most important one here.
Because SK can basically single-handedly kill non-proliferation, kill non-proliferation - and welcome to a really, really interesting new world.

gelgoog said:

South Korea and Japan are countries which have breakout nuclear weapons capability. Both of them had laser uranium enrichment programs at one point. Both have extensive civilian nuclear industries. And they have the solid rocket technology to make the delivery systems.

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Solid rocket is just part of the question. Those are necessary, not sufficient, conditions. The big question is miniaturization which is a totally different game. There's tons of secret and non commercial components and capabilities like x-ray mirrors, inert atmosphere machining, etc.

In terms of real enrichment capability, laser is too low volume. You need centrifuge or diffusion.


Russia is #1, EU is #2, China #3, US #4 with enrichment capability in 4000+ (US) to 27000+ (Russia) separation work units.

Entire rest of the world (including Japan, SK, India, Pakistan, etc) combined is 66 SWU.

SWU is also transferable between low enrichment high volume and high enrichment low volume, so it measures both enrichment level and total capacity.

gelgoog said:

South Korea and Japan are countries which have breakout nuclear weapons capability. Both of them had laser uranium enrichment programs at one point. Both have extensive civilian nuclear industries. And they have the solid rocket technology to make the delivery systems.

Click to expand...

Solid rocket is just part of the question. Those are necessary, not sufficient, conditions. The big question is miniaturization which is a totally different game. There's tons of secret and non commercial components and capabilities like x-ray mirrors, inert atmosphere machining, etc.

In terms of real enrichment capability, laser is too low volume. You need centrifuge or diffusion.


Russia is #1, EU is #2, China #3, US #4 with enrichment capability in 4000+ (US) to 27000+ (Russia) separation work units.

Entire rest of the world (including Japan, SK, India, Pakistan, etc) combined is 66 SWU.

If South Korea determined it wanted to get nuclear weapons, could the US not provide weapons from its stockpile?

NPT agreement.

Korea/Japan may strongly desire nuclear capabilities but US will refuse their request under pretext of its security umbrella.

There're so many cons to US if that happens. Think about it: Countries might start rejecting US' security pact, ultimately diminishing US presence in the region. Worse still for them, you can be certain other nuclear states will start selling their services willy-nilly.

Long-time US ally Israel for instance will piss their pants before you can say "Allahu Akbar" if the Gulf starts stockpiling nukes.

theforgotten0007 said:

NPT agreement.

Korea/Japan may strongly desire nuclear capabilities but US will refuse their request under pretext of its security umbrella. There're so many cons to US if that happens. Think about it: Countries might start rejecting US' security pact, ultimately diminishing their presence in the region. Worse still for them, you can be certain other nuclear states will start selling their services willy-nilly.

Long-time US ally Israel for instance will piss their pants before you can say "Allahu Akbar" if the Gulf starts stockpiling nukes.

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You could say weaponizing US dollar is also weakening their influence, but they have shown time and time again willing to sacrifice long term for a win right now. If nuclear proliferation can bait China into a war it might just be worth it in their mind.

TK3600 said:

You could say weaponizing US dollar is also weakening their influence, but they have shown time and time again willing to sacrifice long term for a win right now. If nuclear proliferation can bait China into a war it might just be worth it in their mind.

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Yeah, that is if Japan or SK wants war on their homeland. I doubt even the most nationalists will sing Washington's tune when their home becomes a marked target.

SlothmanAllen said:

If South Korea determined it wanted to get nuclear weapons, could the US not provide weapons from its stockpile?

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Maybe but what if then China replaced SK and US in your sentence with Cuba and China?

SlothmanAllen said:

If South Korea determined it wanted to get nuclear weapons, could the US not provide weapons from its stockpile?

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No. But, they can deploy them in Korean peninsula and Authorize Korean to wire their platform to accommodate US Nuclear weapons.

Basically similar as Germany.