South Korea shifts away from denuclearisation-first stance on North Korea

South Korea has dropped a policy that put pressure on North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons first, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said on Thursday.

Chung said South Korea had shifted its immediate priority from disarmament to stopping the expansion of North Korea's nuclear activities. He said the government had effectively abandoned the previous administration's denuclearisation-first approach and its insistence that North Korea first dismantle its nuclear programme.

Chung said the long-term goal of denuclearisation had not changed. But he said the immediate priority was to stop further development, saying North Korea continued to expand and advance its nuclear programme.

President Lee Jae Myung has changed Seoul's approach since taking power in June 2025, reversing the stance of his more hawkish predecessor. Lee has offered talks with nuclear-armed Pyongyang without preconditions. North Korea's leadership has not responded to his repeated offers.

North Korea is under widespread sanctions over its nuclear programme and is believed to possess dozens of warheads. South Korea has not hosted nuclear weapons on its territory since 1991, when the United States, its biggest military ally, withdrew stockpiles.

North Korea has repeatedly described itself as an irreversible nuclear state since a 2019 summit between leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief. Earlier this month, Pyongyang vowed to strengthen its nuclear forces in both quality and quantity.

Lee previously said that freezing North Korea's nuclear capabilities at current levels by suspending new production and preventing the import of nuclear materials would itself be a gain.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.