New Realities, Old Fears: Escalation on the Korean Peninsula

Alliance tensions over abandonment and entrapment fears come sharply into focus at times of conflict escalation or the possibility of escalation. Therefore, understanding escalation dynamics and the processes for de-escalation and the restoration of deterrence is an important aspect of U.S.-ROK alliance management. The DPRK’s recent nuclear test, SLBM ejection tests, and advancements in other asymmetric capabilities such as cyber-warfare make escalation management more complicated and difficult for the alliance.

Image Credit: The White House

Before examining escalation problems in the current context of the DPRK’s growing asymmetric threats, it is helpful to understand the historical lessons of past escalation episodes and how they affected fears of abandonment and entrapment over time.

Caught between the US and China, South Korea joins the AIIB

According to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia will need to invest about $8 trillion in overall national infrastructure between 2010 and 2020. South Korea’s involvement is an important step toward developing sustainable infrastructure development under the banner of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Meeting today’s deadline for membership entry with time to spare, South Korea’s Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced on March 27 that South Korea would join the China-led AIIB as one of the founding members.

South Korea: Foreign Policy Impasse?

South Korea’s foreign relations especially in East Asia are in a state of impasse under the current President Park Geun-hye. During the last President Lee Myung-bak, it was clear that South Korea gave priority to its alliance with the US and resultantly drifted away from its closest economic partner, China.

The current President Park Geun-hye from the very beginning wanted to balance this over tilt. She tried to implement a two-leg policy, and made her first ‘official visit’ to the US and first ‘state visit’ to China, emphasising the importance of both in the foreign policy calculus of the country. It was indeed a very perceptive move. Similarly, South Korea under the current administration declared the initiation of ‘trust politik’ towards North Korea, which was a correction to the unconstructive hard-line policy of the previous South Korea administration. It was considered to be the right choice to pacify North Korea and engage it in meaningful dialogue towards denuclearisation, economic reform, and ultimately, bringing about a peace regime on the Korean peninsula.

South Korea Is Building A $1.5 Billion 5G Service That Can Download Movies In A Second

South Korea, already one of the most wired countries on earth, Wednesday announced a 1.6 trillion won ($1.5 billion) plan to roll out a next-generation 5G wireless service quick enough to download full-length films in a second.

A Growing Chill Between South Korea and Japan Creates Problems for the U.S.

In the courtly world of diplomacy, the meeting between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea was something of a shock.

Mr. Hagel was in the region to try to revitalize America’s faltering “pivot” to Asia and had one especially pressing request for Ms. Park: to try to get along better with Japan. The steely Ms. Park instead delivered a lecture about Japan’s “total absence of sincerity” over the suffering that imperial Japan caused Korea in the last century and finished with a request of her own: that Washington force Tokyo to behave.

N. and S. Korea agree to reopen industrial park

North and South Korea agreed Sunday to try to revive their touchstone economic cooperation project, one that the North suspended three months ago during a period of back-and-forth military threats, South Korea said after the conclusion of lengthy cross-border talks.

The agreement to reopen the jointly-operated Kaesong Industrial Complex appeared preliminary, but it offers the first clear sign of progress as the two Koreas try to repair badly frayed relations.

Japanese ministers’ war shrine visits angers South Korea; Tokyo defends them as private

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made donations and three Cabinet ministers prayed at a militarist Japanese shrine over the weekend, sparking South Korean anger. Japan on Monday defended their actions as private.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that Abe didn’t visit the Yasukuni Shrine but donated religious ornaments marking the shrine’s spring festival. The finance minister and two other Cabinet ministers prayed at the shrine.

Former top U.S. official: China getting fed up with North Korea

The Chinese government has changed its approach to North Korea and taken a tougher line out of frustration with Pyongyang, according to Kurt Campbell, the State Department's top Asia official until last month.

North Korea says it’s in ‘state of war’ with South Korea in latest belligerent threat

North Korea issued its latest belligerent threat Saturday, saying it has entered “a state of war” with South Korea a day after its young leader threatened the United States because two American B-2 bombers flew a training mission in South Korea.

Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely and North Korea’s threats are instead aimed at drawing Washington into talks that could result in aid and boosting leader Kim Jong Un’s image at home. But the harsh rhetoric from North Korea and rising animosity from the rivals that have followed U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang’s Feb. 12 nuclear test have raised worries of a misjudgment leading to a clash.

U.S. Begins Stealth Bombing Runs Over South Korea

Shin Young-Keun/Yonhap, via Associated Press

The United States sent two long-range B-2 Spirit bombers over South Korea on Thursday.

THOM SHANKER and CHOE SANG-HUN

WASHINGTON — The American military on Thursday carried out a rare long-range mission over the Korean Peninsula, sending two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers on a practice sortie over South Korea, underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend its ally amid rising tensions with North Korea.

Here's 20,000 Well-Armed Reasons Why North Korea Should Chill Out

Geoffrey Ingersoll

Every year, 20-some-odd thousand troops from the Republic of Korea and the United States get all their loudest, flashiest toys together, churn up the ocean, and culminate by throwing an exclusive party that's about 10 miles from the demilitarized zone in North Korea.

Every year, this happens. Yet every year, North Korea flips out.

One year, I even got to go.

See what I saw in 2008 

In 2008, the two main operations — Foal Eagle and Key Resolve — were put together as one. Key Resolve is the largest body of operations, consisting of jets, ships, and naval exercises.

via Department of Defense

U.S. moves toward selling advanced spy drones to South Korea

The Obama administration formally proposed a controversial sale of advanced spy drones to help South Korea bear more of its defense from any attack by the heavily armed North.

John Schwab/AP - In this Nov. 3, 2006, file photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows an RQ-4 Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) landing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. The Air Force is basing three of its most advanced unmanned aerial vehicles, the Global Hawk to Guam.

Seoul has requested a possible $1.2 billion sale of four Northrop Grumman RQ-4 “Global Hawk” remotely piloted aircraft with enhanced surveillance capabilities, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement dated Monday and distributed Tuesday.

South Korea extends missile range under new deal with U.S.

South Korea said Sunday that it would nearly triple the range of its ballistic missiles, allowing it to strike all parts of North Korea and a sliver of China, under a new deal with the United States.

The bilateral agreement, coming after nearly two years of negotiations, frees Seoul to develop and use significantly more muscular missile technology at a time of steady concern about the belligerent North.