There are frank discussions taking place about the merits of nuclear weapons in South Korea, and for the first time since the 1970s, it appears that North Korean provocations and broader East Asia security dynamics have the president himself considering an indigenous nuclear program to protect the country in a worst-case scenario.

Polls by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and others find strong public support for nuclear armament. In 2022, Asan found that 70% of South Koreans supported indigenous nuclear weapons development and 63.6% backed independent nuclear armament even if the country was sanctioned for violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation