Tensions on the Korean Peninsula, after a few weeks of relative quiescence, are on the rise again. This latest round began with the release of the first defense white paper of the government of the Yoon Suk Yeol government which, in which for the first time in six years, Seoul defines North Korea as an “enemy” of the South. “North Korea stipulates its pursuit to communize the entire Korean Peninsula in the rules of the Workers’ Party of Korea revised in 2021 and defines us as an undoubted enemy at the plenary session in December 2022,” reads the Korean-language biennial defense white paper for 2022, reported the Korea Herald. In that context, North Korea “continues to pose military threats without abandoning nuclear weapons. Therefore, the North Korean regime and the North Korean military, which are the main executors, are our enemy,” the document said.
The white paper was followed the next day by an announcement from the South Korean Defense Ministry of a planned table-top exercise with the U.S. Defense Department, scheduled for Feb. 22 at the Pentagon, which scenario includes potential nuclear use by the North. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in November agreed to include the nuclear use scenario in response to the recent shift in North Korea’s nuclear strategy and advancing nuclear capabilities.
