Will the US let South Korea go nuclear?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]Do you see the Trump administration trying to keep South Korea non-nuclear?

[00:00:03]They seem to have sort of benign neglect approach.

[00:00:06]>> Well, so, you know, as far as I know, nobody in the administration has officially gone on the record saying that it's good for South Korea to build the bomb. Uh there were some, you know, there were some in the administration who in their non-official capacities before the November uh 2024 election made comments to that effect. So, I think that sort of fed into this idea that maybe the second Trump administration would let South Korea go nuclear. But, I think in general terms, you know, I mean, I've made the argument uh I wrote a piece last year in War on the Rocks with two colleagues and friends who were formerly in the Biden administration, Vipin Narang and Pranay Vaddi, where we made the argument that, you know, uh America first, I mean, if you are somebody that does believe in the America first vision for US grand strategy, you really should favor non-proliferation, right? I mean, if your idea is that the United States should have, you know, we should be first among no equals when it comes to our ability to exercise power freely in the international system. That is kind of a very classical case for for keeping the world less proliferated, right?