The Pentagon’s push to give tactical nuclear weapons a greater role in defending U.S. allies in regional conflicts with China or Russia is raising questions in Seoul over whether U.S. nuclear weapons could return to South Korea more than three decades after their withdrawal. According to media reports, the Pentagon is drafting a new nuclear strategy that would place greater emphasis on shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons in such conflicts. South Korean experts, however, say the shift would not necessarily lead to the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons here. They say a more likely consequence would be closer coordination between U.S. nuclear forces and South Korea’s conventional military capabilities, while warning that making nuclear weapons more usable could also increase the risk of escalation on the Korean Peninsula. The United States withdrew all of its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991, when former President George H.W. Bush ordered a global pullback of U.S. ground- and sea-based tactical nuclear arms. Then-South Korean President Roh Tae-woo respon