For Peace, Let There Be NukesThe U.S. fantasy of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula has long been a mirage.
APRIL 26, 2022|12:01 AM
IVAN ELAND
The blatantly aggressive invasion of Ukraine by Russia, complete with apparent war crimes, has shaken up world politics—especially in faraway East Asia. Russia, in an attempt to recover from an initially bungled invasion of Ukraine, is making nuclear threats to try to attenuate U.S. and Western assistance to that nation. Thus, the thinking is that China or North Korea might also rely on such weapons to try to similarly shield an aggressive invasion of a non-nuclear country in East Asia.
A recent poll in South Korea showed more than 70 percent of South Koreans support their government getting nuclear weapons. Although South Korea has a very good conventional military by world standards, much better than its arch-rival North Korea, the North Koreans have nuclear weapons. Pressure is building in South Korea to obtain nuclear weapons because of fears that the United States’ “extended deterrence” (using its nuclear weapons to protect its ally South Korea) might be unreliable if North Korea invaded South Korea.
As it gets longer range missiles to deliver nuclear weapons, North Korea could invade South Korea and threaten the United States’ cities and military bases in the Pacific with nuclear holocaust if it came to the South’s assistance. Stupidly, during the debate in South Korea about whether to make a drive for nuclear weapons, North Korea warned that it would use its nuclear arsenal “at the outset of war” with the South. Also in South Korea’s neighborhood, China and Russia also have nuclear weapons and could possibly turn unfriendly.
However, the U.S. government fears that if South Korea built nuclear weapons, any hope of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula would evaporate. In addition, the United States is apprehensive that a nuclear South Korea could start a nuclear arms race in the East Asian region.
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South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have been responsible players in the international system for some time now and would likely be good stewards of nuclear weapons. However, the price for the United States allowing them to obtain such arms would be to abrogate all U.S. security guarantees. In the longer term, after the Ukraine crisis has passed, the United States should even rethink defending NATO countries. The Russian military has already proven it is a hollow shell; Europe already has Britain and France, two countries with a nuclear deterrent to counter the Russian one; and the wealthy European Union had five times the GDP of Russia, even before recent Western economic sanctions have devastated it, thus allowing Europe to amply defend itself without a U.S. nuclear and conventional umbrella.
Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/for-peace-let-there-be-nukes/
