Why is independent nuclear armament needed?
Professor Emeritus Mane Heo/Former President of the Korea Society of Contemporary European Studies
South Korea has been the sole and legitimate state and government on the Korean Peninsula since 1948. The lawful country was born in this historic year, with the recognition of the United Nations. So it is natural that the country has effectively occupied the peninsula as the only actor of the entire territorial sovereignty against North Korea that the UN had not recognized.
It is, nevertheless, a great surprise that North Korea has continued to provoke the lawful state chiefly by launching terrorist acts. Its terrorism ranges from the surprise attack on the Blue House aimed at killing the former President Park Chung Hee to the tests of nuclear weapons and missiles of great variety. The challenging North Korea has done its six nuclear tests and many missiles tests, including cruise missiles. Even in recent months, the rogue state claimed to have tested its Hail-523 system as part of national military modernization, deployed a new solid-fueled international range ballistic missile tipped with hypersonic speed, in addition, fired artillery shells toward the border island, and quite recently launched its new spy satellite named Manilykyong -1. The North claims to have monitored many military bases in the South and the US. It is a horrible surprise that the military-oriented country also launched its first submarine capable of launching nuclear weapons and furthermore test-fired a new strategic cruise missile titled “Bulhwa-3-31” seen as delivering nuclear weapons. The South seems not to be ready to deter or crush such attacks supported by such ultra-strategic weapons. It is now vulnerable to such dangers. Viewed from its military preparations, the North seems to have established the tallest wall to crush any attacks from the outside, cutting off any route to communicate with the South for denuclearization of the North.
Most recently, Leader Kim Jong Un of the North defined the South Korea as an enemy engaging in belligerency, marching south in case of war-outbreak, with the intention to occupy the entire southern territory. With such a determination, he succeeded to strengthen military ties with Russia, by sending a great number of ammunition to Moscow and receiving high-military technology from it. So Pyongyang and Moscow security ties have been fortified from the low-key level. Recently the Kremlin said that “Moscow will expand cooperation in all fields with Pyongyang.” It also announced that “Pyongyang is the closest friend to Moscow.” Thus these new security ties have helped Russia launch strong counterattacks on Ukraine, probably turning the war favorable to Moscow. In the end, such a war situation might allure Kim Jong-Un to shift to more aggressive attitude toward the South. Furthermore, he has tried to strengthen security ties with China, consequently reaching the goal to create a new Northern Trilateral Cooperation—Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing.
Judging from such provocations in the North, the South, as a sovereign and peaceful state, should shoud put through an independent nuclear armament. The independent nuclear weapons are not aimed for aggression on the North but for self-defense of the South. There has existed the long asymmetric balance between the two sides over the past 18 years, naturally today increasing potential that the North would unleash a nuclear preemptive attack on the South. It seems that such a preemptive attack, small or large in size and intensity, might cause a new nuclear war. According to some North Korea experts such as the former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Robert L. Carlin, a former CIA analyst and Siegfried S. Hecker, a nuclear scientist, Kim Jong Un seems to have decided to go to war. Some other experts say that a more limited attack is yet on the cards. We watch closely that provocations by the North intensifies.
South Korea is now in dire need to have nuclear weapons on hand to deter preemptively such a new nuclear war in Northeast Asia. But this judgment does not, however, mean that the South will deviate from the newly enhanced Korea-US Alliance. It still remains effective, continual, and firm.