07 January 2016•Update: 08 January 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea is discussing with the United States which American military "assets" to deploy on the peninsula, according to Seoul's defense ministry Thursday -- a day after North Korea said it had successfully conducted its first hydrogen bomb test.
While experts across the world questioned whether the size of Wednesday's blast matched Pyongyang's claim, political pressure was building in the South over the best way to deter future provocations.
Ruling Saenuri Party officials suggested that South Korea should develop its own nuclear arsenal, despite having agreed not to do so under a pact with the U.S.
"It is time for us to peacefully arm ourselves with nukes from the perspective of self-defense to fight against North Korea's terror and destruction," floor leader Won Yoo-chul was quoted by local news agency Yonhap as telling senior party members.
Saenuri chief policymaker Kim Jung-hoon agreed with the need to pursue alternatives to the current pattern of stop-start dialogue with Pyongyang, pointing out that "China, Russia and North Korea are in fact armed with nuclear devices, and Japan is enriching uranium."
But the government was seeking a solution that might be more appetizing to its ally the U.S., as a defense ministry representative explained at a briefing that bilateral discussions were underway.
Those talks apparently went beyond widely-reported phone conversations between President Park Geun-hye and her counterpart Barack Obama as well as the two sides' defense chiefs.
The U.S. already has nearly 30,000 military personnel stationed in South Korea, but additional deployment options could range from nuclear-powered submarines to B-52 bombers.
With the South already on alert, Seoul's unification ministry also announced that it would limit access to the Kaesong Industrial Complex just north of the border.
The inter-Korean project was forced to shut down for several months amid high tensions following North Korea's third nuclear test in 2013.
Seoul and Pyongyang have maintained an uneasy truce since the 1950-53 Korean War, having never signed a peace treaty.
