After the cold war had ended, the world had transitioned from bipolarity to a world of many independent nations fighting for hegemony. The United States and Russia had stepped down from their leadership positions and left the world without a true hegemon. To compete with the United States and Russia, smaller nations began to assert their power through "hard power," an approach that involves military power. Therefore, smaller states began developing and researching nuclear weapons. As a nation bordering the power hungry Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the delegation of Korea would like to see nuclear deterrence and ultimately disarmament, in hopes of a world free from nuclear use by non-state actors.
According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Korea has allied with the United States ever since the nuclear war and has abandoned its nuclear weapons program. South Korea has also signed the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula along with North Korea. Although North Korea has clearly violated this declaration, South Korea has called on the North to abide by the declaration. Also according to NTI, "South Korea is bound by a bilateral pact with the United States banning the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel," with a renewal agreement that occurred on September 2014. Due to the threat of a nuclear North Korea, the issue of the United States deploying nuclear weapons has been debated. Although both nations deny the possibility, 66% of South Koreans are in support of developing nuclear weapons to counteract North Korea. South Korea also hosted the Nuclear Security Summit, in March 2012, where the Seoul Communiqué was adopted unanimously. South Korea would look for a resolution that encourages disarmament, but allows for nuclear weapon development in cases where other countries are not willing to comply, as in the case of South Korea and North Korea.
