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We are watching a dangerous drift toward catastrophe on the Korean Peninsula, and it’s past time that Washington stopped pretending business as usual will protect Americans. Veteran statesman and publisher Steve Forbes has called plainly for redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea — a bold, commonsense step to restore deterrence where weakness has invited recklessness. Conservatives who love peace through strength should demand action now, not more platitudes.
Pyongyang is not a paper tiger; Kim Jong Un has ordered a rapid expansion of nuclear capabilities and is flaunting new enrichment facilities that make his threats real, not rhetorical. North Korea’s recent rhetoric and tests show an unmistakable push to increase both the size and sophistication of its arsenal, putting Seoul, Tokyo, and even the U.S. homeland at risk if we tolerate further emboldenment. This is not speculation — it is intelligence and reporting that must be confronted with strength.
History teaches us the price of unilateral disarmament: from 1958 until 1991 the United States maintained tactical nuclear weapons on the peninsula, and their removal was premised on optimistic assumptions that have since proven false. Steve Forbes reminds readers that those weapons once anchored deterrence and that their absence has coincided with North Korea’s relentless drive for nuclear parity. If American leaders are serious about protecting allies and preventing war, they should stop apologizing for American power and start reinstituting prudent deterrents.
Some in Seoul are already saying nuclear options should be on the table because Washington’s umbrella looks shakier by the day, even as President Yoon has publicly tried to calm fears by saying South Korea will not pursue its own bomb. That contradiction highlights a dangerous truth: if the U.S. will not provide credible deterrence, regional proliferation is a likely and terrible consequence. Redeploying tactical nukes or otherwise hardening the American commitment would reassure allies and undercut the incentive for South Korean armament debates to spiral out of control.
Some pundits and diplomats will howl about escalation and regional stability, but the real escalation is already happening because we chose restraint over readiness. The United States has never had a no-first-use pledge in practice for good reason — ambiguous strength preserves peace by keeping adversaries guessing about the cost of aggression. If we abandon that posture now, we invite brinkmanship and gamble with American lives and our allies’ futures.
Patriots should demand that our leaders treat deterrence as the moral imperative it is: protect the innocent by denying tyrants the means to blackmail or slaughter them. Redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, combined with tougher sanctions and a unified alliance posture, is not warmongering — it is responsible defense of freedom and a defense of civilization against a madman’s ambitions. Congress and the next administration must stop ceding strategic advantage and act with the courage that our grandparents showed in facing down oppression.
