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Gabriela Bernal
Dr Gabriela Bernal is a North Korea analyst based in Seoul, South Korea. She is the founder of Peninsula Dispatch, an online site that provides in-depth analysis of Korean peninsula affairs. Dr Bernal is also a freelance writer and has written for various media outlets as well as for think tanks and academic publications.
Pyongyang sending troops to fight in Ukraine would signal North Korea’s evolution from an isolated pariah state to a tangible threat to international security.
The vision of unification South Korea is selling has no room for North Korea or Kim Jong-un’s regime. It is bound to fail.
As Moscow and Pyongyang deepen military ties, the stakes have never been higher to prevent provocations that could turn into armed clashes.
Seoul should take the initiative in reducing tensions, even if it looks weak. In the inter-Korean chess game, a retreat could be a power move.
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After nearly two decades of sanctions on North Korea, Russia could have dealt the system a death blow in an attempt to force it to change. The UN should take this opportunity to alter its strategy and instead prioritise diplomacy to generate dialogue and greater understanding.
The North Korean leader’s decision to no longer seek reconciliation and instead label South Korea its ‘principal enemy’ has changed the dynamics on the peninsula. These moves, plus increased military activity, mean it’s vital to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table and rebuild inter-Korean relations.
The launching of spy satellites has caused the border buffer agreement between North Korea and South Korea to fall apart, amid more military drills and missile tests – and a diplomatic breakdown.
The current status quo encourages military build-ups and aggressive posturing while impeding sensible solutions to North Korea’s isolation and economic impoverishment. A peace treaty must be negotiated, and the US must drop its unrealistic requirement for complete and verifiable denuclearisation.
South Korea’s national security strategy centres on boosting deterrence, sanctions and response capabilities to North Korean threats – – all methods that have failed to get Pyongyang to denuclearise
Instead of focusing on more military measures to counter North Korea, leaders in the US and South Korea should be finding ways to revive diplomacy and dialogue.
Criticism is mounting about the Yoon administration’s support for the US amid the latest claims and as other countries increasingly distance themselves from Washington’s demands.
Several North Korean missiles have been fired in response to US-South Korean drills as Pyongyang warns of war provocations, and talk in Seoul turns to nuclear arms. What happened to diplomacy and dialogue?
Yoon government’s hawkish stance is raising inter-Korea tensions as more South Koreans grow in favour of nuclear arms. The danger? An arms race when a return to diplomacy is needed instead.
The South Korean president has raised the possibility of the country acquiring nuclear weapons if the security situation on the peninsula continues to deteriorate. However, this would lose Seoul the moral high ground, leaving only military options on the table, and rapidly change the regional security dynamic.
As North Korea grows bolder in developing its nuclear weapons, passes a first-strike law and cosies up to Russia and China, petty behaviour by the South only makes it impossible to make any serious demands on Pyongyang.
Intensifying US-South Korea military exercises provokes Pyongyang, raises tensions and risks a breakdown of the 2018 inter-Korean border agreement, when an environment for diplomacy and dialogue should be created instead.
