Track Min-soon (second from left), who served as overseas and commerce minister beneath Roh Moo-hyun, offers a e-book discuss on his new launch “Good Fences, Good Neighbors” on the Seoul Press Heart within the Korean capital’s Jung District on Nov. 12, 2025. (Park Min-hee/Hankyoreh)
Track Min-soon, a former South Korean overseas minister who helped form the settlement to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula reached throughout the six-party talks in 2005, acknowledged the significance of South Korea buying “nuclear latency” to cut back its reliance on the US for safety, however instructed that it ought to focus extra on enriching uranium than on constructing nuclear-powered submarines.
Track’s remarks got here in a chat on his e-book “Good Fences, Good Neighbors” on the Korea Press Heart in Seoul on Wednesday.
“The scope of our coverage autonomy solely widens after we cut back our reliance on the US for safety,” he pressured.
“I don’t understand how US-China relations will develop going ahead, however decreasing our safety reliance is the one method for us to realize a broader scope of selection,” he mentioned, including that this was “one thing for our head of state and our consultants within the subject of overseas affairs and nationwide safety to handle.”
In Track’s evaluation, North Korea’s completion of its nuclear weapon improvement in late 2017 and the US’ ongoing will increase within the prices of its “safety umbrella” for South Korea have resulted in a serious shift the place Seoul’s earlier coverage strategy — pursuing trade and cooperation with the purpose of reaching denuclearization, a peace regime, and eventual reunification — is now not legitimate.
On the identical time, he pressured that it was “not fascinating to have a actuality the place South Korea is confronted with a nuclear risk from North Korea on one hand and depends on the ability of the US nuclear umbrella on the opposite.” As a extra reasonable resolution, he proposed sustaining a “chilly peace” of coexistence with the North as two separate states, whereas gaining nuclear latency via uranium enrichment.
Commenting on inter-Korean relations, he referred to as for “abandoning the fantasy of unification with North Korea and pursuing a chilly peace primarily based on inter-Korean coexistence, to be adopted in the end by a heat peace.”
He additionally mentioned he favored a “nonaggressive protection technique of ‘We received’t shoot should you don’t come out, however we’ll should you take even a step exterior.”
“I believe we have to fastidiously develop a stance the place we guarantee enough defensive capabilities with out adopting the strategy of attacking the opposite facet,” he mentioned.
By way of North Korea’s future, Track mentioned that China could be an vital variable.
“Even when North Korea itself is susceptible, it received’t collapse so long as China is propping it up, and even when it does collapse, it’s unlikely the Korean Peninsula can be reunified in the best way South Korea hopes,” he predicted.
Track went on to say that he was not giving up on the purpose of eventual reunification however felt that “we can not afford to waste our capabilities fixating on that final result when there are not any technique of reaching reunification.”
He additional advocated sustaining the nuclear umbrella offered by the US, whereas establishing the identical nuclear latency that Germany and Japan possess when it comes to an entire nuclear gas cycle. He additionally mentioned that “establishing uranium enrichment capabilities” could be central to this.
He added that buying nuclear latency must be a method for South Korea to “search a nuclear steadiness with the North whereas shifting from an alliance framework of reliance on the US to an ‘alliance of self-sufficiency.’”
“Within the wake of World Struggle II, small conflicts didn’t escalate into main wars in locations the place a regional nuclear steadiness had been established, whereas main wars erupted in locations the place there was no such steadiness,” he defined.
Track voiced a extra reserved stance on the matter of nuclear-powered submarines — an space the place Seoul reached an settlement with Washington at a current summit.
“If we concentrate on uranium enrichment and reprocessing earlier than speaking about nuclear-powered submarines, the remaining will proceed from there, and it appears to me that we could also be making the problem extra sophisticated now with this grand packaging about nuclear-powered submarines,” he instructed.
With nuclear-powered submarines costing 5 to 10 occasions greater than their diesel counterparts of equal dimension, Track noticed that the operation of 4 submarines in step with the administration’s announcement would require an outlay amounting to all the yearly operation prices for navy tools.
He additionally famous that whereas international locations with nuclear-powered submarines have management over waters with areas of between 4 million and 10 million sq. kilometers, South Korean submarines would have management over an space protecting round 400,000 sq. kilometers.
He additional instructed that it was “slightly bit harmful for South Korea to out of the blue purchase nuclear-powered submarines that make it appear as if a world navy energy.”
Chun Yung-woo, a former Blue Home nationwide safety adviser, joined Track on the e-book occasion for a panel dialogue.
“I’m sympathetic to the notion that we must always develop nuclear latency in case the US nuclear umbrella ‘breaks,’” Chun mentioned. “Nonetheless, the federal government should not give the impression that it’s pursuing uranium enrichment for the needs of acquiring nuclear latency.”
Relating to the pursuit of uranium enrichment, Chun argued that Korea should “make it crystal clear that it’s purely for peaceable functions and power safety.”
On the identical time, Chun remarked that the “temper has shifted” in recent times, noting the “rising variety of individuals, even within the US, who imagine that Korea arming itself with nuclear weapons could be favorable within the US-China rivalry.”
“There’s no cause for Korea to scare itself into holding itself again,” he pressured.
Chun additional argued that it was attainable for Korea to complement uranium with out amending its nuclear power pact with the US, saying, “The larger downside is that we’re behind on our analysis and improvement on uranium enrichment.”
By Park Min-hee, senior workers author
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