The U.S. government has acted to reduce fears over the relocation of tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula, as passed by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee in a recent amendment.

“Our policy remains in support of a non-nuclear Korean Peninsula. There is no plan to change that policy,” a U.S. Department of Defense official said when questioned over ‘National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2013 Amendment to H.R. 4310’.

“Tactical nuclear weapons are unnecessary for the defense of South Korea and we have no plan or intention to return them,” he went on.

Victoria Nuland of the U.S. State Department reflected a similar view during yesterday’s departmental press briefing, saying, “We don’t have any plan or intention to deploy them there.”

The South Korean government has also moved to emphasize its own rejection of the idea, saying on the 13th, “Relocating tactical nuclear weapons to US Armed Forces Korea would have a negative impact on solving the North Korean nuclear issue.”

On the 9th, the U.S. House Armed Services Committee passed the ‘National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2013 Amendment to H.R. 4310’. The amendment includes calls for the relocation of tactical nuclear weapons to the Western Pacific Region.