For the purpose of projecting US power, South Korea is sacrificing itself

President Yoon Suk-yeol is enraging North Korea, China, and Russia, endangering his own nation for the benefit of Washington.

Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, arrived in Washington, DC on Wednesday for a formal state visit. The US will station nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea, as part of the visit’s announcement.

While undermining Moon Jae-in’s much more moderate strategy, which attempted to pursue peace with North Korea as well as maintain positive relations with China and Russia, Yoon has sought to reorient his foreign policy back towards the US.

Yoon is currently pursuing reckless hostility with Pyongyang, Moscow, and Beijing even as the US undermines the foundations of South Korea’s economic success with its discriminatory policies against Korean industries in the form of the Inflation Reductio All of these actions run the risk of undoing decades of advancement and making the Korean peninsula a fresh front in the Cold War.

The flimsy attempts at peace on the Korean peninsula by Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in have been undermined by the election of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol and the ferociously aggressive Biden administration. While Trump and Moon sought to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, meet, and defuse tensions, their successors have shown no interest in doing the same and have instead sought to reignite an arms race on the peninsula by holding large-scale military drills, which have been met by increased ballistic missile testing by Pyongyang.

The US neoconservative establishment has a basic incentive to thwart such moves toward peace, which is one reason Trump failed. Because if the two Koreas are able to come together, Washington’s capacity to utilize South Korea and the rest of Asia as a bulwark to contain China would be jeopardized. This is because American military presence on the peninsula would be at least partially delegitimized. Promoting peace is strategically unwise, just as it is not something that the US will do in Ukraine. However, these goals can be achieved if the US, supported by its conservative allies who are anti-communist, can maintain a persistent state of military tension on the peninsula, repeatedly inciting the North to start an extended arms race.

However, the overall effects of this will be terrible, escalating nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula to levels not even seen during the Cold War. Although there has been much talk about the US being able to “end” the North Korean regime should it launch a nuclear attack, it is naive to make such broad generalizations or to downplay the fact that in this scenario all Koreans, including those in the South, would suffer the most. Whatever the case, North Korea is not a nation to be taken lightly. While it frequently engages in hyperbole and threatening rhetoric, recent history demonstrates that it has been more than willing to employ force to retaliate against South Korea, such as by sinking a warship or bombarding an island.

Yoon has also chosen, at Washington’s urging, to provoke China more and more. He has made aggressive remarks on Taiwan and summoned the Chinese ambassador in response to Beijing’s retort. Given that China is the nation’s main trading partner, this is economically irresponsible. Sanctions were imposed on South Korea as a result of its previous attempts to provoke Beijing, such as the 2017 deployment of the THAAD missile defense system. Due to its extremely protectionist economic policies, its insistence that South Korean semiconductor businesses create capacity on American soil, and the Inflation Reduction Act’s negative effects on the trade balance for the South, the US does not offer an analogous economic option.

Even the most ardent supporters of the US have questioned what Yoon is really getting out of his trip. Nothing, is the answer. His entire foreign policy is founded on willful subservience, to the extent where it jeopardizes the security, stability, and prosperity of the Korean peninsula. It comes as no surprise that his popularity continues to decline. Increasing tensions with three nations at once, at a time when neither Moscow nor Beijing are interested in reining Pyongyang in, will cause havoc throughout the region as Kim Jong-un responds with additional missile tests and possibly even a nuclear test. The situation favors Washington strategically, whereas South Korea is likely to suffer the greatest losses. Once more, we witness willing proxies instigating conflicts at the expense of their nations so the US can project its influence.

Because Pyongyang is fighting the US for its very existence, it has much less restraint than either Moscow or Beijing. For Kim, a nuclear war is not a game, but it certainly feels that way to the Biden administration.

For the purpose of projecting US power, South Korea is sacrificing itself.

President Yoon Suk-yeol is enraging North Korea, China, and Russia, endangering his own nation for the benefit of Washington.

Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, arrived in Washington, DC on Wednesday for a formal state visit. The US will station nuclear-armed submarines in South Korea, as part of the visit’s announcement.

While undermining Moon Jae-in’s much more moderate strategy, which attempted to pursue peace with North Korea as well as maintain positive relations with China and Russia, Yoon has sought to reorient his foreign policy back towards the US.

Yoon is currently pursuing reckless hostility with Pyongyang, Moscow, and Beijing even as the US undermines the foundations of South Korea’s economic success with its discriminatory policies against Korean industries in the form of the Inflation Reductio All of these actions run the risk of undoing decades of advancement and making the Korean peninsula a fresh front in the Cold War.

The flimsy attempts at peace on the Korean peninsula by Donald Trump and Moon Jae-in have been undermined by the election of the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol and the ferociously aggressive Biden administration. While Trump and Moon sought to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, meet, and defuse tensions, their successors have shown no interest in doing the same and have instead sought to reignite an arms race on the peninsula by holding large-scale military drills, which have been met by increased ballistic missile testing by Pyongyang.

The US neoconservative establishment has a basic incentive to thwart such moves toward peace, which is one reason Trump failed. Because if the two Koreas are able to come together, Washington’s capacity to utilize South Korea and the rest of Asia as a bulwark to contain China would be jeopardized. This is because American military presence on the peninsula would be at least partially delegitimized. Promoting peace is strategically unwise, just as it is not something that the US will do in Ukraine. However, these goals can be achieved if the US, supported by its conservative allies who are anti-communist, can maintain a persistent state of military tension on the peninsula, repeatedly inciting the North to start an extended arms race.

However, the overall effects of this will be terrible, escalating nuclear tensions on the Korean peninsula to levels not even seen during the Cold War. Although there has been much talk about the US being able to “end” the North Korean regime should it launch a nuclear attack, it is naive to make such broad generalizations or to downplay the fact that in this scenario all Koreans, including those in the South, would suffer the most. Whatever the case, North Korea is not a nation to be taken lightly. While it frequently engages in hyperbole and threatening rhetoric, recent history demonstrates that it has been more than willing to employ force to retaliate against South Korea, such as by sinking a warship or bombarding an island.

Yoon has also chosen, at Washington’s urging, to provoke China more and more. He has made aggressive remarks on Taiwan and summoned the Chinese ambassador in response to Beijing’s retort. Given that China is the nation’s main trading partner, this is economically irresponsible. Sanctions were imposed on South Korea as a result of its previous attempts to provoke Beijing, such as the 2017 deployment of the THAAD missile defense system. Due to its extremely protectionist economic policies, its insistence that South Korean semiconductor businesses create capacity on American soil, and the Inflation Reduction Act’s negative effects on the trade balance for the South, the US does not offer an analogous economic option.

Even the most ardent supporters of the US have questioned what Yoon is really getting out of his trip. Nothing, is the answer. His entire foreign policy is founded on willful subservience, to the extent where it jeopardizes the security, stability, and prosperity of the Korean peninsula. It comes as no surprise that his popularity continues to decline. Increasing tensions with three nations at once, at a time when neither Moscow nor Beijing are interested in reining Pyongyang in, will cause havoc throughout the region as Kim Jong-un responds with additional missile tests and possibly even a nuclear test. The situation favors Washington strategically, whereas South Korea is likely to suffer the greatest losses. Once more, we witness willing proxies instigating conflicts at the expense of their nations so the US can project its influence.

Because Pyongyang is fighting the US for its very existence, it has much less restraint than either Moscow or Beijing. For Kim, a nuclear war is not a game, but it certainly feels that way to the Biden administration.