Defense Minister Song Young-moo has assessed that North Korea is unlikely to recklessly use its nuclear weapons. 

Speaking to reporters after delivering a speech at the Sixth Fullerton Forum in Singapore on Monday, Song said North Korea will likely be erased from the map if it uses its nuclear weapons against South Korea or the United States.

He made the remark to a question on whether the North would use its nukes offensively.

Song said the threat of a nuclear strike was part of the Kim Jong-un regime’s propaganda campaign and therefore there is little possibility that it would actually carry out an attack.

Asked about the possibility of the North using its nuclear weapons to bring about unification of the two Koreas on its own terms, Song said such an idea is an anachronistic way of thinking. 

On the controversy over the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to the South, Song said that he had made clear before a parliamentary committee that South Korea remains committed to its denuclearization policy.

He was quick to add, however, that the South will continue to cooperate with the U.S. to completely suppress the North's nuclear threats through their joint military strength and information-sharing capacity.

In his keynote speech at the Fullerton Forum, Song had reaffirmed that South Korea will never accept the North as a nuclear state. He said Seoul will continue to strongly respond to the North's threats while pursuing the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the peninsula by mobilizing all means possible, including sanctions and dialogue.