Put the Camp David agreement into action

Lee Baek-soon
The author is a former Korean Ambassador to Australia.

The leaders of Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to systematize — and regularize — tripartite security cooperation at the Camp David summit last month. They stipulated the agreement in their joint statements “Spirit of Camp David” and “Camp David Principles.” As suggested by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s fitting definition of the times as “the era of great change in 100 years,” the consensus reached at the U.S. president’s retreat in Maryland certainly represents an appropriate response to radical changes in geopolitics.

But a strengthening of the Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance will trigger a reinforcement of the North Korea-China-Russia alliance. As the law of action and reaction in physics also applies to international politics, a fortification of security cooperation on one side inevitably brings about a counteraction from the other side.

In particular, Russia — currently mired in the deep swamp of the Ukraine war — would desperately want the northern trilateral security cooperation to achieve its strategic goals. That’s why Russia has started to talk of a tripartite military drill with China and North Korea, as hinted at by the saber-rattling summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at Vostochny Cosmodrome, an advanced spaceport in the Russian Far East.

An apparent agreement to intensify military technology cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow will jeopardize the international security order even further. If Russia agreed to provide North Korea with the three technologies it had longed for, it will be a game changer in the global security order.

Given the North’s two botched launches of military satellites, it needs the technology to put satellites into orbit, more than ever. Once North Korea obtains the technology, it poses a grave security threat to South Korea and its allies, as it will dramatically raise the level of its precision strike. The North is red-eyed to get the atmospheric re-entry technology for ICBMs; if it acquires that technology, it can launch a nuclear attack on major cities in the U.S.

North Korea is also obsessed with securing the technology needed to operate the “tactical nuclear attack submarine” it proudly unveiled earlier this month. If the North acquires those three technologies, the country will become an undisputed nuclear power.

As such alarming developments will certainly weaken Korea’s national security even further, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration must find extraordinary countermeasures against them. First of all, it must go beyond the spirit and principles of Camp David and draw concrete concessions from Uncle Sam to bolster its self-defense capabilities. Given the possibility of former U.S. President Donald Trump being re-elected in next year’s presidential election, our government must rush to institute additional systems to ensure our security. The ongoing United Nations General Assembly can serve as a venue for President Yoon Suk Yeol to prepare the ground for that.

First, Korea must exercise stronger discretion over handling nuclear materials, just like Japan. Thanks to the Comprehensive Consent 35 years ago, Japan can enrich uranium to operate nuclear reactors on its own, together with the right to store a considerable amount of nuclear waste. As a result, Japan has the potential to arm itself with nuclear weapons in a short period of time if it decides to. We also must have such nuclear potential as soon as possible by starting a negotiation to revise the ROK-U.S. Atomic Cooperation Agreement that effectively prohibits Korea’s uranium enrichment without U.S. consent.

Second, Korea must push for a plan to possess nuclear submarines by cooperating with the U.S., just as Australia did. Canberra obtained the right to have a nuclear-powered submarine in return for its contribution to the establishment of the trilateral security consultative body (Aukus) with the U.S. and the UK. Given Korea’s significant contribution to the creation of the tripartite security cooperation system, Seoul must demand the same from Washington. Korea needs nuclear-powered subs to counter North Korea’s growing submarine forces. That will also help protect U.S. security.

Third, Seoul must revise the wording — the “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” — specified in the Washington Declaration. The government must leave room for the rapid deployment of U.S. tactical weapons in times of crisis to protect our security.

After allegedly completing its nuclear programs last year, North Korea began to call Korea “the Republic of Korea.” That reflects its intention to regard the South as a “third country” — not the country of the same people — and threaten it with a nuclear attack at any time. As countering nuclear weapons with conventional ones is just a pipe dream, we need an approach totally different from the past. In 1969, when President Park Chung Hee was informed of Richard Nixon’s intent to pull out U.S. forces from South Korea, he embarked on developing nuclear weapons on our own to no avail. Our security is more endangered than at the time.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.