Avoid being 're-hyphenated' with North Korea
The Yoon Suk Yeol administration in South Korea appears to be giving a befitting reply to North Korea’s “uncouth” and provocative behavior. After coming to power, the new administration has taken a tough stance and a tit for tat approach in its dealing with North Korea. The most recent example has been a large-scale military parade of South Korea on Sept. 26. It was interesting to see the South Korean military parade passing through the heart of the capital city and displaying domestically developed tanks, self-propelled artillery and the participation of American soldiers based in South Korea also.
Several pictures and videos are being shared on social media and elsewhere in which people were seen cheering as troops, tanks, missiles and drones pass by them. Actually, the whole day, from the Seoul Air Base to the streets of Seoul, Hyunmoo missiles, L-Sam missile interceptors, reconnaissance drones and several jets demonstrated the military strength of South Korea. The parade was not held for the last ten years and earlier parades were more symbolic and at a smaller scale.
It is true that North Korea’s notoriety has gone forward in leaps and bounds in recent years. Despite sincere efforts of the Moon Jae-administration which led to the Panmunjom Declaration, establishment of a liaison office in Kaesong, the Pyongyang Declaration, and even two summit meetings of the North Korean leader with the U.S. president, North Korea has remained recalcitrant. After an unsuccessful Hanoi summit, North Korea has become more aggressive in its posturing. Though they have not conducted any nuclear tests in the last six years, they have destroyed the liaison office at the Kaesong, made sharp personal remarks on South Korean leaders and tested almost 150 missiles in under two years.
In response to North Korea's belligerent, non-compromising and unpredictable behavior, South Korea feels that enough is enough and Yoon’s North Korea policy reflects such a mood in South Korea. In less than one and half years, Yoon has proposed a preemptive strike on North Korea, redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons and at the popular level there has been demand for South Korea develpoping its own nuclear weapons. South Korea has released its own Indo-Pacific strategy while Yoon has participated in the two NATO summits, had outreach towards Japan and strengthened relations with the U.S. with the Washington Declaration as well as the Camp David trilateral meeting. South Korea went to the extent that when North Korea tested missiles in October 2022, South Korea also did the same and the South Korea military openly said that South Korea’s air to surface missile tests are “in reaction to a barrage of North Korean missile tests.”
Yoon administration’s choice of appointments in the unification and defense ministries has also been indicative of this trend. In June 2023, Yoon appointed his unification minister Kim Yung-ho, who wrote in 2019 that unification would happen when the Kim Jong-un “regime is overthrown and North Korea is liberated.” He appointed a new defense minister Shin Won-sik who has been critical of the Sunshine Policy and engagement with North Korea and wants the Pyongyang Declaration of September 19 to be “abolished.”
Overall, it may appear quite satisfying for South Korea that it has been responding to North Korea in its own language but at the same time, there must be a rethink as it may further divide South Korea and North Korea. Actually for decades, the international community understood the Korean issue as a contest between the two political entities of the Korean Peninsula who are rivals and in contest with each other. However, with the democratization and economic success of South Korea along with its rise as a responsible middle power in the Indo-Pacific, a big shift could be clearly seen. The international community started realizing that the problem is not a contest between the two Koreas but only North Korea. South Korea has taken itself out of the conundrum. South Korea's economic success, democratic vibrancy and cultural resurgence place it in a different light. South Korea began to provide developmental aid to many developing countries and its ‘transformative power’ is considered a model to be imitated. Contrary to this, North Korea is considered a "failed state," "rouge state" and a source of potential instability in the region.
Thus, it appears to be wise on the part of South Korea to keep moving on its own path, concentrating on its economic growth and democracy. It does not mean to say that South Korea has to neglect its genuine security concern and should be negligent to its defense preparedness. However, provocative statements, a narrow retributive approach and unnecessary demonstrative moves could be avoided. All of them may have potential to "re-hyphenate" South Korea with North Korea. Although it is quite premature to say that such re-hyphenation would happen in the near future, any slide towards it must be identified early and a restraint must be put on it.
The author is associate professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India and could be reached at sandipmishra10@gmail.com