President Yoon Suk Yeol reportedly said that the realistic and rational option for South Korea is to fully respect the Nonproliferation Treaty(NPT) regime.

The Wall Street Journal published an interview on Thursday conducted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, which quoted Yoon as saying that he has full confidence in the U.S.' extended deterrence against North Korea's nuclear weapons.

Last week, Yoon said that he would not rule out the possibility of the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea or of the nation building its own nuclear weapons in case North Korea's nuclear threat becomes much more serious.

The presidential office later clarified that there has been no change in South Korea's position toward its commitment to nonproliferation, a stance publicly reaffirmed by the president for the first time since his comments on developing nuclear weapons.