The Paradox of Nuclear Security

This Tuesday will be a pivotal day for the world as on November 5th, the United States will elect their 47th president. Regardless of who becomes president, the new administration will likely usher in change for a new era.

One agenda the U.S.’s new president will be addressing is instability on the Korean Peninsula. Last year, President Joe Biden strengthened military alliances in East Asia by making trilateral ties with Japan and South Korea. Following this, North Korea responded in kind by making an alliance with Russia, as well as with Iran. Both of these countries have had long-standing, strong political relationships with North Korea. Recently, North Korean troops have even begun to fight in the Russia-Ukraine War.

Korean Peninsula instability is due in part to the fact that North Korea has already developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons. Talks to deter their nuclear program have failed on multiple accounts, with the most recent being in 2019 at the Hanoi Summit in Vietnam. Since then, North Korea’s nuclear program has steadily progressed, reaching its peak around 2021 and 2022, despite global sanctions imposed upon the country.

Although the thought of nuclear weapons brings alarm to the international community, worldwide, nuclear weapons are simply just an extension of strategic bombing. Strategic bombing became a major war strategy in World War II, with the United States and Great Britain dropping more bombs in the war than Germany, including U.S.’s use of two atomic bombs on Japan.

Nuclear Missile

Unfortunately, strategic bombing often specifically targets women and children because by doing so more shock and fear are created. If shock and fear are instilled in the hearts of ordinary citizens, then their will to fight dissipates and surrender may ensue. In this way, strategic bombing has become one major strategy within modern warfare. Ordinary people, including women and children, are often targeted, thus destroying the morale of the people, as well as resources and economic support.

Nuclear weapons have produced in world politics a true revolution in relationships between force and foreign policy. But having indestructible power with nuclear weapons is a myth. Even while possessing nuclear weapons, the United States has not been immune to war. And ever since the dropping of two atomic bombs, other countries besides the U.S. have continued to develop nuclear warfare.

Sadly, this myth remains the mindset of Koreans today. They think that if they have nuclear weapons, they will be immune to attack. Trauma caused by the Korean War still vividly lives on in the hearts and minds of Koreans, making military defense a top priority for both countries.

In South Korea, about 518,000 civilian deaths resulted from the Korean War, but in North Korea there were substantially more with a total of about 1,078,000 civilian deaths. Combined with military causalities, about 5.87% of the South Korean population was killed, whereas about 17.28% of the North Korean population was destroyed at the time of the war.

Due to these large-scale casualties and other compounding factors, trauma from the Korean War burns on, leaving a huge memory on the psyche of the North Korean people. Trauma is passed down through “han”. "Han" is the Korean word used for the passing down of bitterness, emotional turmoil, and resentment from the older Korean generation to the younger generation. It has been a concept in Korean culture for centuries and perpetrated throughout the many invasions and sufferings the Korean people have endured. With this cultural nuance, trauma continues to be passed down from one generation to the next, both in the South and the North.

Currently, North Korea’s nuclear discourse is similar to the 1940’s strategy of the United States. Nuclear weapons are viewed as a deterrent or shield to war. This is because nuclear bombs are actually too destructive to really use. Therefore, they are used primarily as a tactical advantage. As long as the nuclear threshold is not reached, major war can be avoided. This deterrence is the nuclear weapons paradox of stability and instability. It turns out that the actual risk of war breaking out is not the presence of nuclear weapons but rather the willingness of the people to fight.

Through this paradox, development of nuclear weapons is ironically helping to establish a sense of security in North Korea. Especially for countries where the trauma of war lives on, once nuclear weapons are developed, the country is able to divert its attention to greater social needs instead of military defense.

Plans for Rural Development in North Korea

Already North Korea has started to divert some of its military spending to economic development. Ever since North Korea’s development of a nuclear arsenal reached its peak in 2022, the government has been reconstructing the country. In particular, rural development has ramped up in both 2023 and 2024. Most development projects have focused on farms or rural villages. Entire old neighbors have been demolished and replaced with newer, modern apartments.

Therefore, as the international community has been sanctioning North Korea for its nuclear weapons development, in some ways North Korea has been able to establish a safer and more secure environment for her people due to their nuclear program. It may sound counterintuitive to us, but through the development of their nuclear program, the North Korea people have strengthened their country’s defense system and consequently been able to reallocate their focus on economic development. Thus in recent years, ordinary people in North Korea have benefited from improved living standards and economic security.