Nuclear
South Korea first became interested in nuclear technology in the 1950s but did not begin construction of its first power reactor until 1970. Seoul currently has 20 civilian nuclear power reactors in use for an estimated net electricity capacity of just over 17,000 MW(e). Changes in the international security environment influenced South Korea's decision to begin a nuclear weapons program in the early 1970s. Under significant pressure from the United States, Seoul abandoned this program and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in April 1975 before producing any fissile material.

In November 1991, President Roh Tae Woo declared that South Korea would not "manufacture, possess, store, deploy, or use nuclear weapons." Two months later, North and South Korea signed the Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of The Korean Peninsula. However, both sides failed to implement the agreement’s provisions relating to a bilateral inspection regime. Seoul has been a participant in the Six-Party Talks since the forum’s inception in 2003 aimed at ending the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Despite three years of negotiations, North Korea tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006. Immediately following the test, Seoul agreed with measures at the United Nations to imposed limited sanctions on Pyongyang. In February 2007, an agreement was reached at the Six-Party Talks which aimed to ultimately completely shut down Pyongyang’s nuclear program in exchange for assistance from the United States, South Korea, and other countries.

Biological
While South Korea possesses a well-developed pharmaceutical and biotech infrastructure, there is no evidence that Seoul has an offensive biological weapon (BW) program. Citing a biological threat from North Korea, South Korea conducts defensive BW research and development, including the development of vaccines against anthrax and smallpox. South Korea ratified the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in June 1987 and joined the Australia Group in October 1995.
 

Chemical
After ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in April 1997, South Korea is reported to have declared possessing chemical weapons (CW) and one CW production facility to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Although few details are publicly known, South Korea may still be storing several hundreds of tons of CW munitions, including nerve agents. Pursuant to its CWC obligations, the South Korean military currently is devising methods to destroy CW munitions at a disposal site in Yongdong-kun, North Ch’ungch’ong Province.
 

Missile
In December 1971, South Korean President Park Chung Hee issued a directive to reverse-engineer the U.S. Nike Hercules air defense missile, a system that can also be used in a surface-to-surface role. Following several failures, South Korea's first successful test of its own version, known as "Paekkom," was conducted in September 1978. In 1979, South Korea entered into a bilateral agreement with the United States that limited South Korean ballistic missiles to a range of 180km with a 500kg payload. The Paekkom program was slashed in December 1982, but was restored in late 1983; an improved version of the Paekkom, called the "Hyonmu," was subsequently developed. South Korea joined the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in March 2001; membership in the organization supersedes the missile-range agreement concluded earlier with Washington. In January 2002, South Korea announced procurement of the 300km-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) from the United States, purchasing 110 ATACMS by 2004. Seoul is also developing a space launch vehicle with a plan to place a small satellite into low-earth orbit in 2007. In July 2006, a Korean military communications satellite was launched from a Russian space launch vehicle.
 

	Updated September 2007