The Ford Administration's Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Toward South Korea

In the middle and late 1960 s,several crises broke out on the Korean Peninsula,such as “the Blue House Raid”,the situation on the peninsula tended to be tense.The US government's attitude of not expanding the incident has caused South Korea's doubts about the U.S.'s commitment to security assurances,which led to Park Chung Hee administration's decision to start developing nuclear weapons in the early 1970 s.After aware of South Korea's attempt to develop nuclear weapons,the U.S.Ford administration warned and threatened South Korea to abandon the acquisition of nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities through diplomatic means.On the other hand,U.S.joined hands with France and Canada to prevent the conduct of South Korean nuclear transactions.After several rounds of negotiations with Park Chung Hee administration,the United States forced South Korea to cancel the reprocessing facility contract with France under the condition of expand nuclear cooperation with South Korea in nonsensitive areas.It can be seen from the case of Ford administration prevented South Korea develop nuclear weapon and other non-proliferation cases,whether the nuclear proliferation country is an ally of the United States is not a decisive factor.The impact on the US regional strategy and the global cold war pattern is the key to leading the nuclear non-proliferation policy formulation.In addition,U.S.domestic politics and other factors will also affect the formulation and implementation of the nuclear nonproliferation policy.