This was stated by the President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk-yeol on the Memorial Day of the fallen in the war with North Korea. Such rhetoric is unlikely to help reduce tensions and strengthen peace on the Korean peninsula.
Every year on June 6, one of the main national holidays is celebrated in the Republic of Korea – Memorial Day, or as it is also called by the people the Day of Loyalty – loyalty to their history and gratitude to the soldiers who died in battles for the salvation of the South Korean homeland. On this day, Koreans celebrate the signing of the armistice that put an end to the bloody Korean War of 1950-1953. Memorial Day was established in honor of those who died in the struggle for independence and in 1970 received the status of a state holiday in the Republic of Korea. It is important to remember that the conflict between South and North Korea led to the division of the country and huge human losses.
It was on this day, Tuesday, June 6, 2023, that the current president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeol, decided to make a very ambiguous statement in its consequences. Speaking at a memorial ceremony at the Seoul National Cemetery, he said that the military alliance between South Korea and the United States had been modernized and became “nuclear-based.”
This happened, according to the politician, thanks to the so-called Washington Declaration signed in April this year during his visit to the United States, which involves strengthening the nuclear obligations of Americans towards South Korea. In particular, it provides for measures by the US to ensure “extended deterrence” for defending the territory of the Republic of Korea (as in: from the DPRK) with all of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons. “The Washington Declaration dramatically strengthens the extended deterrence execution of US nuclear assets,” Yoon Suk-yeol highlighted. “The South Korea-US alliance has now been upgraded to a nuclear-based alliance.” It is this “stronger than ever” tandem with the United States that the current government and the military of the Republic of Korea are going to build a reliable security system on in order to protect South Korean citizens, the president concluded.
A natural question arises whether such a design based on the American “nuclear umbrella” will help preserve the already fragile peace on the Korean Peninsula (KP). Or such bellicose rhetoric from Seoul will further provoke the improvement of Pyongyang’s nuclear missile potential, which already reacts extremely adversely to any field training exercises and joint maneuvers of the Armed Forces of South Korea and the United States.
One can hope that with this approach of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration to security issues on the Korean peninsula, 160,000 South Korean soldiers who died during the Korean War and 120,000 missing South Korean soldiers do not turn out to be just a small drop against the background of the upcoming inter-Korean upheavals.
Bakhtiar Urusov, a political observer, exclusively for the online journal “New Eastern Outlook.”