Lopsided Security on the Korean Peninsula

Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Kil Joo Ban
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Gray Zone ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
The North ◽  
Conventional Weapons

North Korea’s asymmetric provocations over the last decades can be classified into two periods: tactical provocations at sea in 1970–1990 and strategic (nuclear) provocations in 2000–2020. What is the logic underlying the North Korean imbroglio? And how does the former period differ from the latter? The first set of provocations was intended to shift the threat imbalance caused by a widening gap in conventional military capabilities into a balance of insecurity, where the weaker North Korean side faced South Korea and the combined ROK–US forces. The second set was intended to shift the balance of insecurity into an imbalance of terror while ensuring that only Pyongyang would be armed with nuclear weapons in the area. The “gray zone” discourse of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula (rather than North Korea) ended up bolstering North Korea’s nuclear program, while South Korea intensified only its conventional weapons program.

North Korea

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick McEachern
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
North Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pop Music ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
Foreign Service ◽  
The North ◽  
American President

After a year of trading colorful barbs with the American president and significant achievements in North Korea’s decades-long nuclear and missile development programs, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared mission accomplished in November 2017. Though Kim's pronouncement appears premature, North Korea is on the verge of being able to strike the United States with nuclear weapons. South Korea has long been in the North Korean crosshairs but worries whether the United States would defend it if North Korea holds the American homeland at risk. The largely ceremonial summit between US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the unpredictability of both parties, has not quelled these concerns and leaves more questions than answers for the two sides' negotiators to work out. The Korean Peninsula’s security situation is an intractable conflict, raising the question, “How did we get here?” In this book, former North Korea lead foreign service officer at the US embassy in Seoul Patrick McEachern unpacks the contentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an approachable question-and-answer format. While North Korea is famous for its militarism and nuclear program, South Korea is best known for its economic miracle, familiar to consumers as the producer of Samsung smartphones, Hyundai cars, and even K-pop music and K-beauty. Why have the two Koreas developed politically and economically in such radically different ways? What are the origins of a divided Korean Peninsula? Who rules the two Koreas? How have three generations of the authoritarian Kim dictatorship shaped North Korea? What is the history of North-South relations? Why does the North Korean government develop nuclear weapons? How do powers such as Japan, China, and Russia fit into the mix? What is it like to live in North and South Korea? This book tackles these broad topics and many more to explain what everyone needs to know about South and North Korea.

Dialogue with John Dunn on Korean Denuclearization

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 293-311
Author(s):  
Sang-Jin Han
Keyword(s):  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Vantage Point ◽  
Global Risk ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The North ◽  
Fundamental Limit ◽  
National Division ◽  
Reasonable Solution

This dialogue addresses the global risk that broke out of the North Korean development of nuclear weapons and missiles. It starts from the brutal consequences of the national division for Korea and asks why North Korea has been so preoccupied with nuclear projects as has been found to be the case since the 1990s, and how much and why Kim Jung-un today differs from his father in terms of his future, and where the fundamental limit lies in Moon Jae-In’s as well as Trump’s approaches to Korean denuclearization and peace. The highlight of this dialogue is to explain the intrinsic difficulties for Donald Trump and Kim Jung-un in finding a reasonable solution to their respective demands for denuclearization and regime security, and explore the likely future of the Korean Peninsula from the vantage point of Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine Policy and metamorphosis.

scholarly journals The Nuclear Problem of the Korean Peninsula: Is There a Way of Ending the Deadlock?

2015 ◽  
pp. 182-193
Author(s):  
V. Denisov
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
The Past ◽  
Reasonable Solution ◽  
Nuclear Problem ◽  
The Usa ◽  
North And South

The nuclear problem of the Korean peninsula remains unsolved, tensions continuing for the past five years. The mechanism of the Six-Party Talks in which Russia, China, the USA, Japan, North and South Korea took part, is inactive, while each party develops its own strategy to counteract the new nuclear program of North Korea. Such an approach stimulates further escalation in the region, because there is no mutual understanding of North Korea nuclear status. In addition there exist a number of contradictions between the members of Six-Party Talks, each of them trying to resolve North Korean issue pursuing their own interests. However, in the current situation a peaceful resolution of the problem is still possible. Moreover, it is the only reasonable solution.

South Korea may develop nuclear weapons

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Content Type ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The North ◽  
Produce Change ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Near Future

Subject The risk of South Korea developing nuclear weapons. Significance The most serious political risk on the Korean peninsula, after war and the collapse of the North Korean regime, is the possibility that South Korea will develop nuclear weapons. This is extremely unlikely under the current administration but more plausible -- if still unlikely -- under the next. South Korea's democratic system could produce change very quickly, as democracies elsewhere did with Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. The weapons could probably be completed within a couple of years. Impacts Nuclear armament is more likely under a future conservative administration; the current centre-left government has ruled it out. South Korean nuclear armament would be a major setback for global non-proliferation efforts. Japan would be unlikely to follow suit in the near future, but resistance there would be eroded.

scholarly journals North Korea's nuclear program is facing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
أ.آمال بنت احمد بن صويلح
Keyword(s):  
International Atomic Energy Agency ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Atomic Energy ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
The North ◽  
The Military ◽  
Positive Results

لخلاصة Nuclear energy is among the most important discoveries reached by the human terms contributed to the solution of many problems faced by the states. The last of these that are not only utilizing it in a peaceful area, but tended toward the military field and the nuclear weapons industry , Among these countries, we find North Korea, which has openly declared their manufacture of nuclear weapons and thus entry to the club of nuclear countries. International Atomic Energy Agency has worked to resolve the North Korea standoff but has not been able to achieve positive results, prompting the intervention of European countries in order to end the crisis. تعدُّ الطاقة النووية من بين أهم الاستكشافات التي توصل إليها الإنسان إذ ساهمت في حلِّ العديد من المشاكل التي واجهت الدول . هذه الأخيرة التي لم تكتفي بتوظيفها في المجال السلمي بل اتجهت نحو المجال العسكري وصناعة السلاح النووي .من بين هذه الدول نجد كوريا الشمالية التي أعلنت صراحة صناعتها للسلاح النووي ودخولها بذلك لنادي الدول النووية . عملت الوكالة الدولية للطاقة الذرية على حلِّ أزمة كوريا الشمالية لكنها لم تتمكن من تحقيق نتائج ايجابية ما دفع لتدخل دول أوروبية قصد إنهاء الأزمة. الكلمات المفتاحية : البرنامج النووي ،كوريا الشمالية ، التسلح النووي

Northernmost finding and further information on water deer Hydropotes inermis in Primorskiy Krai, Russia

Mammalia ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry A. Belyaev ◽  
Yeong-Seok Jo
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Range Expansion ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Republic Of Korea ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
The West ◽  
Southwestern Part ◽  
The North

AbstractAlthough the water deer, Hydropotes inermis is one of the most common large mammals in South Korea (Republic of Korea), it had limited distribution along southwestern part of the Korean Peninsula and currently inhabits most of the peninsula after several releases in 1950s and 1960s. Currently, water deer was documented from Primorskiy Krai, Russia in the vicinity of northeastern border of North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). The first report was a camer trapped water deer in 2019 about 45 km from North Korean border and we found the older harvest record of water deer in 2014 about 210 km from North Korea. Although the North Korean government translocated water deer from the west coast to the northeast in the 1950s and 1960s, range expansion or dispersal of water deer was not reported until these records. Further research is needed to confirm if they represent whether it’s a persistent population or transient dispersers.

North Korea: The Sequel

2003 ◽  
Vol 102 (663) ◽  
pp. 147-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Cumings
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Current Crisis ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
The North

The current crisis with North Korea “has the same solution as the original [in 1994]: get North Korea's nuclear program mothballed and its medium- and long-range missiles decommissioned by buying them out at a set price. That price is American recognition of North Korea, written promises not to target the North with nuclear weapons, and indirect compensation in the form of aid and investment.”

The Evolving Sino-American Relationship and the Korea Problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 223-246
Author(s):  
Gi-Wook Shin ◽  
David Straub
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
The North ◽  
The U.S

Distrust between the United States and China continues to grow in Northeast Asia. Among many contributing factors, the North Korea issue is one of the most important, as illustrated by the controversy over the possible deployment of the United States' THAAD missile defense system in South Korea. Thus, resolving or mitigating the Korea problem, a significant goal in its own right to both the United States and China, is also essential to reducing U.S.-PRC strategic distrust. China and the United States share long-term interests vis-à-vis the Korean peninsula. The question is how its resolution might be achieved. U.S. efforts to induce North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs by offering incentives and imposing sanctions have failed, and Chinese attempts to encourage Pyongyang to adopt PRC-style economic reforms have not fared much better. With Washington, Beijing, and Pyongyang unlikely to change their approaches, the hope for any new initiative must rest with Seoul. South Korea's special relationships with the North, the United States, and the PRC, along with its status as a dynamic middle power, give it the potential to play a larger leadership role in dealing with North Korea. In doing so, South Korea should consult with the United States and China on a long-term strategy for inter-Korean reconciliation that would, for now, finesse the nuclear issue. Such a strategy would require U.S. and Chinese support of the South Korean leadership in addressing the Korea problem. The process of working together with Seoul to formulate and implement this strategy would allow both powers to ensure that their long-term interests on the peninsula are respected. Although there is no guarantee that such an effort will succeed, the worsening situation on and around the Korean peninsula and the U.S. and PRC's lack of progress all argue for this new approach, as do the potential benefits to the U.S.-PRC relationship.

scholarly journals Russia and Korean Peninsula in the New International Situation

2015 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
V. Denisov
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Nuclear Potential ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The North ◽  
Military Presence ◽  
Chinese Policy ◽  
The Usa ◽  
North And South

Recent trends in international situation around Korean peninsula and the policy of main stateactors are being considered. The USA is trying to reinforce its military presence in South Korea. Seoul is seeking to revise its previous agreements with USA in the sphere of nuclear energy. Trilateral interaction (US-Japan-South Corea) on the problem of North Korean nuclear potential is strengthening. US policy towards North Korea is aimed at counteraction to reinforcement of Russian and Chinese influence in the region. At the same time the USA provides support to North-South dialogue while pressurizing North Korea on the issues of human rights and denuclearization.Pyongyang is concerned with military rapprochement between South Korea and USA and is trying to make North Korean nuclear program an object of bargaining for peaceful settlement on Korean peninsula. North-to-South relations should be regarded as military opposition in spite of constant appeals to peaceful reunification, development of economic and cultural ties etc. Current analysis reveals that both North and South Korea are still far from real progress in this respect.Chinese factor is essential though Beijing behavior is cautious. After Kim Rong Un rise to power political and economic relations between North and South weakened. Pyongyang is concerned with regular contacts between China and US on North Korea problems. Aggravation of international situation did not lead to decline in China-South Korea relations, though China is against deployment of missile-defence THAAD complexes. Chinese policy in Korea is aimed at sustaining of status-quo in the peninsula and barring collapse of the North Corea regime.Policy of Russia is invariably based on the principles formulated in 2001. Recently North Korea has revealed intentions to resume political dialogue with Russia, while South Korea is seemingly not interested in broader co-operation with Russia. Up to the author’s opinion it is necessary to promote six-sided negotiations process, avoid extremes in approaches to both Korean states, and oppose to US domination in the region.

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