Public support is growing in South Korea for the country to develop its own nuclear arsenal, amid rising concerns about deepening defence co-operation between North Korea and Russia and the possibility of a second Donald Trump presidency.

A recent survey by the state-affiliated Korea Institute for National Unification think-tank, found that 66 per cent of respondents expressed “support” or “strong support” for an independent nuclear deterrent, an increase of 6 percentage points from last year.

When asked to choose, the number of respondents who expressed a preference for Seoul having its own nuclear weapons over relying on US troops on the Korean peninsula increased by almost 11 percentage points from the year before, overtaking support for Washington’s military presence for the first time.