South Korea Faces an Uncomfortable Reality: A Nuclear Neighborbr They cannot do so not because they do not believe that — many do —br but because it would be politically difficult to accept the North’s nuclear arsenal without putting South Korea on equal footing with its own nuclear weapons.br " he said during a nationally televised speech last week. that The solution to the North Korean nuclear issue has to start with a nuclear freeze,br It has not been lost on South Korea that Washington seemed to recognize the urgency of North Korea’s nuclear threat only after it demonstrated an ability to hit the United States with intercontinental ballistic missiles last month — and not after earlier intelligence assessments concludedbr that the North could mount a nuclear warhead on a short-range missile capable of hitting the South.