Faced with a renewed series of missile tests and explicit threats made by North Korea, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol asked the United States to participate in exercises using nuclear weapons as a way to contain the dictatorship of Kim Jong -un.
“Nuclear weapons belong to the US, but planning, information sharing and exercises must be conducted jointly with South Korea,” he said in an interview with the Chosu Ilbo newspaper.
According to Yoon, Washington viewed the proposal, which he called extended deterrence, in a “very positive” light. South Korea is home to the third largest contingent of US forces outside the US, 26,500 troops, a legacy of the support given to Seoul in the disputed war with the communist North, from 1950 to 1953.
Between 1958 and 1991, the US maintained tactical nuclear weapons in the allied country, but withdrew them as part of global risk reduction efforts after the end of the Cold War. In 2006, Pyongyang conducted the first of its six nuclear tests, assembling an estimated arsenal of perhaps 45 warheads.
In 2017, after two tests in the previous year, a more powerful hydrogen bomb exploded and launched a series of new missiles, prompting the government of Donald Trump to accept directly negotiating terms to lift sanctions imposed on the country.
Trump and Kim have met twice, but talks have derailed. In 2022, with the eyes of the world on the Ukraine War, Kim again increased the pace of threatening launches, including weapons with intercontinental range.
Alarmed, Japan included the threat in the justification for doubling its military budget, which is obviously aimed at containing Kim’s biggest ally, China. On New Year’s Eve, more ballistic projectiles were launched, as well as on Sunday (1st), when the North Korean dictator gave a speech in which he called the South an “indisputable enemy” and announced that he wanted to “exponentially” increase its atomic arsenal.
Last week, Seoul had to send fighter jets to intercept North Korean drones that threatened to violate its airspace. On Saturday (31), Kim unveiled a series of large 600 mm rocket launchers, capable of firing tactical nuclear projectiles over much of the territory to the south.
The pressure led to the South Korean reaction. In political circles, the repositioning of American weapons in its territory and even the development of the bomb itself are the order of the day, and Yoon’s announcement goes against this.
The point is that, even though Cold War 2.0 is in full swing, Washington sees no reason to escalate the situation in China’s strategic surroundings with such a move, even more so when leader Xi Jinping has sought accommodation. South Korea, Japan’s historic rival, is not part of the Quad – an alliance between Americans, Japanese, Indians and Australians that aims to contain China.
In North Korea, the movement was followed by a change in the country’s defense summit. The number 2 in the country’s military structure, Pak Jong Chon, was replaced by Ri Yong Gil at the end-of-year meeting of the Central Military Commission.
The announcement was made this Monday (2) by the state media, naturally with the usual opacity about the reasons. The Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff of the Army also fell, which could be a normal rotation in a regime given to avoiding the strengthening of internal rivals, or the signaling of some change in regional posture —more aggressive, given the talks about Kim on Saturday.
Pak is a meteoric career general whose work on the North Korean missile program has seen him become a marshal and a member of the Politburo, the political heart of the regime. Now, it seems he has fallen from grace.
Still in the region, the increasingly alarmed Japan announced that it had sent fighter jets to intercept flights of a Chinese WZ-7 reconnaissance drone near the island of Miyako-jima, close to Taiwan, which Beijing considers its own. The incidents took place on Sunday and Monday, according to the Defense Ministry.
In a note, the ministry said it had dispatched combat aircraft and ships to monitor an exercise by the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, accompanied by five vessels, in the Pacific. It was the first Japanese operation of its kind after the announcement of a new, more assertive defense policy that provides for greater military spending.
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