South Korea’s Defense Ministry refers to the North Korean regime and military as the “enemy” in its latest policy document, marking the return of the label after six years of failed rapprochement and escalating illegal weapons testing by Pyongyang.
The 2022 Defense White Paper also describes Japan as a “close neighbor,” reflecting Seoul’s shift to improve bilateral relations as well as increasing trilateral security cooperation with Tokyo and Washington.
The white paper is the first defense policy document published by the ministry under the conservative Yoon Suk Yeol administration, which took office in May. One of Yoon’s key campaign pledges was to maintain “peace through strength.”
The document lays the blame for inter-Korean animosity squarely at Pyongyang’s feet.
“As the North defined us as its ‘undoubted enemy’ at the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party in December 2022, and continues to pose a military threat without renouncing its nuclear program, the North Korean regime and military are our enemy as the main driver of that threat,” the document reads.
Seoul’s use of the “enemy” label for the North has varied in the past three decades and depended often on the state of inter-Korean relations.
The South called the North’s military an “enemy” in the 1994 white paper after a North Korean negotiator threatened to turn Seoul into a “sea of flames.”
But the 2004 edition only called the North a “direct military threat” as then-President Roh Moo-hyun continued the so-called “Sunshine Policy,” a conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang adopted by his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung.
The “enemy” label was revived for the 2010 white paper after the North torpedoed a South Korean corvette in March and shelled Yeonpyeong Island in November that year.
The term was omitted in the 2018 and 2020 white papers issued under the liberal Moon Jae-in administration, which pursued inter-Korean rapprochement.
Likewise, improving relations with Japan were reflected in the latest white paper’s use of the expression “close neighbor” to describe Tokyo.
The term was last used in the 2018 edition.
Following numerous diplomatic spats tied to Japan’s 1910-45 colonial occupation of Korea, Tokyo was described in the 2020 white paper as merely a “neighboring country” that South Korea “should cooperate not only for bilateral relations but also for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia and the world.”
The 2022 Defense White Paper hints at increased security cooperation and geopolitical coalescence between the two countries, with whom the United States maintains separate mutual defense treaties.
“The ROK and Japan share values, and Japan is a close neighboring country that the ROK should cooperate with to build future cooperative relations that serve common interests,” the document reads. ROK is the acronym for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
The 2022 Defense White Paper also provides several assessments about the state of the North’s illegal nuclear weapons and missile development programs.
The document estimates that the North possesses some 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of plutonium, up from the estimate of 50 kilograms in the 2020 edition, and described its stockpile of highly enriched uranium as “considerable.”
A single nuclear weapon requires approximately 6 kilograms of plutonium or 15 to 20 kilograms of highly enriched uranium as fissile material.
The white paper also describes several North Korean missiles tested since the 2020 edition, including the Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and tactical short-range missiles, in an analysis of the regime’s growing arsenal.
It also notes the North’s pursuit of solid-fuel ballistic missiles, which the document describes as “more advantageous than liquid-fuel ballistic missiles in terms of their operational employment.”
But the paper demurs from answering the question of whether the North possesses the requisite atmospheric reentry technology for its ICBMs to withstand standard intercontinental trajectories, saying only that further analysis was required.
The 2022 white paper also says the South Korean military would push to secure capabilities to upgrade and enhance its so-called “K-3” defense strategy.
Also known as the “tri-axis” system, the strategy consists of the Kill Chain preemptive strike system to locate and destroy North Korean missiles if an imminent launch is detected; the Korea Air and Missile Defense System to intercept incoming North Korean missiles; and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation plan to eliminate or incapacitate the North Korean leadership for launching an attack.
In interviews with the Korea JoongAng Daily, defense experts have cautioned that the K-3 strategy has not kept up to date with significant advances in the North’s missile capabilities.
BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]
