It is now believed that North Korea has as many as a dozen nuclear warheads and Kim Jong-un’s growing coziness with Russia is expected to accelerate his development of more advanced, long-range missiles potentially capable of carrying them. This has the people in neighboring South Korea growing increasingly nervous. Recent polls show that a strong majority of South Koreans would like their country to have nukes of its own. Failing that, they would like America to bring back the nuclear weapons we had staged there until Bill Clinton ordered them removed in the nineties. But is that a good idea? If the South is going to have nukes, they won’t be able to develop them from scratch in a short amount of time, so they’d probably have to buy them from us, and such a move would carry repercussions of its own. (Associated Press)
With dozens of nukes in North Korea’s burgeoning arsenal, repeated threats to launch them at its enemies, and a stream of tests of powerful missiles designed to pinpoint target a U.S. city with a nuclear strike, a growing number of South Koreans are losing faith in America’s vow to back its longtime ally.
The fear is this: That a U.S. president would hesitate to use nuclear weapons to defend the South from a North Korean attack knowing that Pyongyang could kill millions of Americans with atomic retaliation.
Frequent polls show a strong majority of South Koreans — between 70% and 80% in some surveys — support their nation acquiring atomic weapons or urging Washington to bring back the tactical nuclear weapons it removed from the South in the early 1990s.
At first glance, the idea of setting up two bordering nations with a history of warfare between them with nukes probably seems kind of crazy. (What could possibly go wrong?)But then again, we’ve had the same situation with India and Pakistan for quite some time now and they’ve managed to keep a lid on any potential mushroom clouds. The nuclear nonproliferation treaty has pretty much fallen to pieces anyway, so perhaps it might be workable.
The bigger and better question is probably why the people of South Korea are leaning in this direction. The linked report contains quotes from a number of survey respondents who are in favor of the idea and we can get a strong hint of the answer. Part of it is found in the except above. Many South Koreans are now afraid that if North Korea attacked them, America would “hesitate” to use nuclear weapons to defend them in kind.
While nobody is mentioning him by name, this clearly seems to be an indication that Joe Biden’s weakness on the world stage has our allies getting nervous. South Korea traditionally hasn’t needed to worry about such things because of our “iron-clad” relationship. If anyone attacked them, they would be on the receiving end of American military muscle, including nukes if need be. Now South Korea sees us wavering in our support of Israel and pulling resources out of other Asian nations. They can’t be blamed for wondering if we might abandon them in a crisis.
Compare this situation to what was happening only five years ago. Kim Jong-un was hosting meetings with Donald Trump and South Korea’s president. They were engaging in talks aimed at officially ending the war and denuclearizing the entire peninsula. Kim was in a much more talkative and cooperative mood, probably because he believed that if he ticked off Trump too much, the Bad Orange Man might just be crazy enough to wipe out Pyongyang in a very bright flash of light.
But nobody is afraid of Joe Biden. And the countries that rely on us for security are no longer sure if we’ll be there in their moment of need. This situation is what leads the South Koreans to consider arming themselves in that fashion. And if that happens, the world will become an even more dangerous place. Weak American presidents lead to deteriorating conditions globally, not just at home. Joe Biden needs to go and the sooner the better.
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