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Nonproliferation experts have attributed the decision to U.S. wariness of the growing chorus in South Korea for its own nuclear armament.

Pistorius told German TV that removing defence from national debt rules was not about armaments as much as "the security of our country - nothing more, nothing less".

Also, critically, U.S. officials expressed concern about Assad’s large stockpiles of armament, including missiles and chemical weapons, that could end up in the hands of the rebels.

The MoD reckons it can crack down on waste and improve the way things are bought and paid for with new more centralised methods – even hiring a new national armaments director to manage this.

More significantly, nuclear armament would first require South Korea to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty — a move that Town said would probably result in international sanctions.