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Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds of South Koreans Favor Nuclear Weapons
A Gallup Korea poll shows 65% of South Koreans support the country developing its own nuclear weapons, while 30% oppose. Support spans both major parties, and many without war fears still back nuclear arms.
By Tertius News AI Desk2 outlets · 2 distinct · 2 articlesVersion 1Coverage Published
Poll: Nearly Two-Thirds of South Koreans Favor Nuclear Weapons
SEOUL — Nearly two-thirds of South Koreans support the idea of their country having its own nuclear weapons, according to a Gallup Korea poll reported by Yonhap news agency on Friday.
The survey, conducted from August 25-27 among 1,001 respondents aged 18 and older, found that 65 percent agreed that South Korea should possess nuclear weapons independently, while 30 percent opposed the idea. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
Support for nuclear armament crossed party lines: 78 percent of supporters of the main opposition People Power Party backed the idea, as did 60 percent of supporters of the ruling Democratic Party.
The poll also examined perceptions of the threat from North Korea. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they believe North Korea could actually start a war, while 55 percent said they did not believe the North posed such a risk. Notably, among those who said there was no risk of war, 58 percent still supported South Korea possessing its own nuclear weapons. Gallup suggested this indicates many respondents may view nuclear weapons more as a strategic or self-defensive deterrent than as weapons for actual use.
On the transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops from Washington, 46 percent said it should be completed during President Lee Jae-myung's term, which ends in 2030, while 41 percent said the transfer should be postponed. Lee has vowed to regain OPCON from the U.S. before his term ends.
The South Korean government has repeatedly stated that developing nuclear weapons in the country would violate the non-proliferation system and is impossible due to possible sanctions. Public concerns emerged in South Korea that the Trump administration might abandon the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and move on to discussing arms control with North Korea, after U.S. President Donald Trump on August 16 recalled his "good relations" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said he had ordered a reduction in the scale and timeline of joint military drills with South Korea. Seoul later assured that the United States and South Korea continue to seek a nuclear-weapon-free status for the Korean Peninsula.
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TASS — English
Framing:Our reading The tone is neutral and factual, presenting poll numbers and government statements without overt emotional language.
Facts Included:
Nearly two-thirds of South Koreans (65%) back the idea of their country having its own nuclear arsenal, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday citing data provided by a Gallup Korea poll.
The poll was conducted on August 25-27 with 1,001 respondents aged over 18 participating.
According to Yonhap, 65% of respondents agreed that the Republic of Korea should be in possession of its own nuclear weapons. Only 30% opposed this idea.
At the same time, this idea is supported by both political camps: 78% of supporters of the conservative People Power Party, which is in opposition, and 60% of voters of the ruling Democratic Party.
Thirty nine percent of the respondents believe that a military conflict could break out on the peninsula. Fifty five percent of those who took part in the poll said they did not see such a risk.
Nevertheless, 58% of those who do not expect war on the Korean peninsula would support the development of nuclear weapons in the Republic of Korea.
The South Korean government has repeatedly stated that the development of nuclear weapons in the country would violate the non-proliferation system and is impossible due to possible sanctions.
On August 16, US President Donald Trump recalled his 'good relations' with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said he had ordered a reduction in the scale and timeline of joint military drills with South Korea.
Public concerns emerged in South Korea that the Trump administration was going to abandon the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and move on to discussing arms control with North Korea.
Seoul later assured that the United States and South Korea continue to seek a nuclear-weapon-free status for the Korean Peninsula.
AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
Claim65 percent of South Koreans support the idea of their country having its own nuclear weapons.
ClaimThe South Korean government has repeatedly stated that the development of nuclear weapons in South Korea would violate the non-proliferation system and is impossible due to possible sanctions.
ClaimOn August 16, US President Donald Trump recalled his 'good relations' with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and said he had ordered a reduction in the scale and timeline of joint military drills with South Korea.
ClaimPublic concerns emerged in South Korea that the Trump administration was going to abandon the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and move on to discussing arms control with North Korea.