South Korea鈥檚 far-right President Yoon Suk Yeol is rushing South Korea headlong into the middle of the that the United States is waging against China.
Yoon鈥檚 aspiration to position South Korea as a 鈥済lobal pivotal state鈥 is turning South Korea into a bigger cog in the US war machine and stakes South Korea鈥檚 security and economic future on a declining US-led global order. Yoon鈥檚 support of the US global order has taken him on a flurry of visits and meetings around the world from the virtual Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) summit to the NATO summit in Madrid to high-level meetings in Japan and the US.
Most recently on his April 26 US visit, Yoon and US President Joe Biden announced the 鈥淲ashington Declaration鈥 to deploy US nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea 鈥 reintroducing US nuclear weapons to South Korea for the first time in more than .
When viewed against North Korea鈥檚 development of nuclear weapons as a strategic deterrent, these weapons in South Korea will more likely fuel a nuclear arms race rather than check North Korea鈥檚 nuclear program. As former South Korean unification minister Jeong Se-hyun 聽that four out of North Korea鈥檚 six nuclear tests occurred in response to the hardline stance of conservative South Korean administrations that refused to dialogue with North Korea.
Ultimately, Yoon鈥檚 actions are putting South Korea on a dangerous path that further destabilises inter-Korean relations and antagonises China, its biggest trading partner. All the while, the move also the Korean government鈥檚 duty to advocate for reparations from Japan for Koreans exploited under Japanese colonialism and to prevent the from the Fukushima nuclear reactor, which lies upstream from South Korea.
Yoon鈥檚 鈥榞lobal pivotal state鈥
The alarming return of US nuclear weapons to South Korea follows Yoon鈥檚 posturing to develop nuclear weapons in South Korea as part of his evolving . More broadly, it forms part of Yoon鈥檚 greater foreign policy agenda of inserting South Korea in the security architecture of the US鈥檚 anti-China Asia-Pacific grand strategy.
The Yoon administration鈥檚 鈥鈥, like Yoon鈥檚 recent activities, follows closely from the US , with the goal of building and enforcing a US-led 鈥渞ules-based order鈥 in the region with 鈥渓ike-minded allies鈥 to contain China.
For all its declarations of fairness and playing by the rules, this US-dominated 鈥渞ules-based order鈥 is at odds with the actual multipolar world taking shape around the world as well as the multilateral nature of the internationally agreed-upon United Nations-based order.
The US has been leading the creation of regional bodies such as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) or the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as part of its 鈥鈥 and engaging in unilateral aggression toward China in the form of 鈥渕ilitary, economic, information, and military warfare鈥.
For example, the US is setting the stage to dispute China鈥檚 actions in the South China Sea not through the UN 鈥鈥, which the US has not signed onto, but rather through the Indo-Pacific security framework. This allows the US to target China鈥檚 actions while exempting its own naval operations from the oversight of 鈥溾 鈥 i.e. the UN.
Furthermore, despite calling for an 鈥渙pen鈥 and 鈥渇ree鈥 Indo-Pacific, the US is by pressuring its Indo-Pacific allies to impede China鈥檚 access to semiconductor chips, one of the world鈥檚 most critical high-tech resources today.
The Yoon administration has been contributing to the buildup and reinforcement of this 鈥渞ules-based order鈥 through its participation in the Indo-Pacific framework, global NATO聽and by consolidating the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral military alliance.
In May 2022, a few weeks into his term, Yoon participated virtually in the IPEF meeting. In December, the administration adopted its own Indo-Pacific Strategy which committed to 鈥渟tabilise supply chains of strategic resources鈥 and 鈥渟eek cooperation with partners with whom we share values鈥 鈥 i.e. IPEF states. South Korea is now being into the US chip war against China.
In June 2022, the participation of South Korea (including Yoon鈥檚 establishment of a NATO diplomatic mission) and three other Asia-Pacific states in the NATO meeting expanded NATO鈥檚 reach from the North Atlantic into the Pacific. This year, Yoon paved the way toward consolidating the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral alliance by that Japan take responsibility for its colonial exploitation of Korean workers. Then, during his March visit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, he resumed the controversial 2016 General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) intelligence-sharing pact, laying the groundwork for direct military coordination between South Korea and Japan.
In April, US, Japanese and South Korean officials met and agreed to hold missile defense and anti-submarine exercises to counter North Korea and 鈥減romote peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region鈥, with special emphasis on 鈥減eace and security in the Taiwan Strait鈥. As a further show of commitment to the US global war strategy, in an April 19 , Yoon reversed his position on Ukraine and raised the possibility of sending weapons, and exacerbated the US鈥檚 provocations in Taiwan vis-a-vis the One China principle, to the ire of Chinese .
A pivot toward peace
Activists in South Korea and abroad have been ceaselessly working toward peace on the peninsula, with key struggles waged along the very sites of US military installations in the Asia-Pacific region encircling China, such as the construction of the in Gangjeong village. They have also been part of long-standing transnational activism to procure a .
As these activists and US scholar Noam Chomsky have in the face of the April 26 US-South Korea nuclear weapons deal, only a peace treaty ending the Korean War would lay the basis for denuclearising the Korean peninsula, bring an end to the US military occupation of South Korea, and move toward peace and stability in Northeast Asia. To continue building greater exchange, dialogue, solidarity聽and pivot the region toward peace, on May 16, National Assembly members along with the and other civil society organisations in South Korea, the US and Japan will be organising an International Forum for Peace in Northeast Asia and Against a New Cold War Order.
[This article was produced by . Dae-Han Song is in charge of the networking team at the and is a part of the collective. Alice S Kim is a writer, researcher, and translator living in Seoul. Her publications include 鈥淭he 鈥榁ietnamese鈥 Skirt and Other Wartime Myths鈥 in (UNC Press, 2022) and 鈥淟eft Out: People鈥檚 Solidarity for Social Progress and the Evolution of Minjung After Authoritarianism,鈥 in (Routledge, 2011).]