A group of lawmakers from South Korea’s Saenuri party—the conservative-leaning party that President Park Geun-hye belongs to—has called for what even a few of years ago was an idea safely relegated to the fringes of Korean political discourse: for Seoul to pursue its own nuclear weapons program. “In order to protect peace we . . .need to consider all measures to deter North Korea’s provocations, including nuclear armament for the purpose of self-defense,” Rep. Won Yoo-chul said. Some in the liberal Minjoo party have also called for at least considering going nuclear.

The legislators’ call comes on the heels of North Korea’s fifth nuclear test, the Kim regime’s largest and most frightening weapons test yet. Pyongyang has also been increasingly vocal in calls for “final victory”—the unification of the Korean peninsula under Communist rule. Given the Kim dynasty’s history of sinking South Korean ships, shelling South Korean islands, blowing up South Korean airliners, and, er, a while ago, invading South Korea, that’s not rhetoric that one should take lightly.