Seoul's defense chief is coming out hard against North Korea,... unleashing some strong words,... warning the regime that any use of nuclear weapons against South Korea or the United States would be the country's final act.
Oh Jung-hee reports.
North Korea will be wiped off the world map should it use nuclear weapons on South Korea or the United States.
That's what South Korea's Defense Minister Song Young-moo confidently stated on Monday at a security forum in Singapore.
When asked whether Pyongyang has a coercive purpose to its nuclear weapons program,... Minister Song said... the North attacking South Korea or the U.S. won't happen for real... and that the nuclear development program is just a part of the Kim Jong-un regime's propaganda strategy.
He stressed that it's (quote)"anachronistic" to say Pyongyang will use its nuclear weapons,... but added...
if it does, then the regime will be erased off the world map.
And to deal with this threat,... Minister Song gave assurances...
that South Korea won't be deploying tactical nuclear weapons... but developing stronger conventional weapons... to keep peace, not go to war.

The remarks came during a question-and-answer session after Minister Song's keynote speech at the 2018 Fullerton Forum... the very first as Seoul's defense chief.
During his address,... he stressed the most urgent and grave security threat in the Asia-Pacific region is Pyongyang's nuclear and missile development... and said South Korea will not, under any circumstances, accept North Korea as a nuclear state.
He emphasized that Seoul will work towards a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,... through peaceful measures like dialogue and negotiation, saying sanctions and pressure will only be used as means of achieving this.
Mentioning that North Korea could have been secretly trading with other nations using foreign vessels, Minister Song urged all nations in the region to abide by UN sanctions and up the pressure on the regime.
Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News.