The main opposition Liberty Korea Party said Thursday that it will send a delegation to the United States to drum up support for its drive for the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula.
Rep. Kim Gwang-lim, the party's policy chief, said that the delegation will meet U.S. politicians and journalists who share the need for the redeployment to counter escalating North Korean nuclear threats.
"The redeployment of the tactical nukes and the deployment of (U.S.) strategic assets equipped with nuclear bombs must take place," Kim said during a meeting with senior party officials.
"In the U.S., a media blitz for the redeployment of nuclear arms has begun. ... Such a blitz helps national interests, and through (the redeployment), we will be able to achieve a balance of terror or balance of power," he added.
The party ratcheted up its demand for the redispatching of the U.S. nuclear arsenals, which were withdrawn from Korea in the early 1990s, after Pyongyang conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear experiment to date Sunday.
The Seoul government has officially dismissed the demand, stressing its denuclearization principle. But Defense Minister Song Young-moo hinted at the possibility of weighing the redeployment as "one of the various options" to cope with the North's saber-rattling.(Yonhap)