South Korea's Security Research Articles

Value Creation and Value Capture: The Case of Cybershelter for Information Systems Security in South Korea

Value creation and value capture are useful concepts in evaluating the value of innovations because the spillover effects are clearly identified through the separation between value creation and value capture. The concepts also provide relevant framework for appraising the performance of public service that have low appropriability. This study introduces a case of successful cyber security innovation in South Korea named Cybershelter. It is a public service introduced by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) to protect vulnerable small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. Once Cybershelter is introduced, the potential values are captured by primary beneficiaries (SMEs) as well as secondary groups. It results in spillover effects, such as: (a) quality improvement and revenue increases for firms, (b) manufacture of security equipment and provision of new related or similar services by the private sector, (c) adoption of similar protection systems by other public organizations, and (d) strengthening KISA’s capabilities.

Korean Courage to Deal with Japan

ABSTRACT Anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea is negatively affecting the economies and security of South Korea and Japan, with strategic implications for Asia and the United States. South Koreans passionately protest when Japanese politicians make insensitive remarks about history or claim the Korean-controlled island of Dokdo as Takeshima. However, anti-Japanese sentiment is inhibiting cooperation with Tokyo that is clearly in South Korea's interests, including a recently scuppered intelligence-sharing agreement. Seoul needs Tokyo's help with North Korea, whether for conflict contingencies or for moving toward or realizing peaceful unification. Problems in Seoul–Tokyo relations concern Washington in the area of loss of security-enhancing, cost-saving trilateral coordination. Korean and Japanese shared values for human rights, economic freedom, democracy, and the rule of law can support further economic and functional cooperation. South Korea's interests would be served by showing leadership in resuming regular diplomacy in Northeast Asia and by emphasizing strategic cooperation rather than historical animosities.

Beyond North Korea: Future Challenges to South Korea's Security. Edited by Byung Kwan Kim, Gi-Wook Shin, and David Straub. Stanford, Calif.: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center at Stanford University; Baltimore, Md.: Brookings Institution (distributor), 2011. 281 pp. $28.95 (paper). - The US-South Korea Alliance: Meeting New Security Challenges. Edited by Scott Snyder. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012.

Beyond North Korea: Future Challenges to South Korea's Security. Edited by Byung Kwan Kim, Gi-Wook Shin, and David Straub. Stanford, Calif.: Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center at Stanford University; Baltimore, Md.: Brookings Institution (distributor), 2011. 281 pp. $28.95 (paper). - The US-South Korea Alliance: Meeting New Security Challenges. Edited by Scott Snyder. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012.

The United States as the Guarantor of the Security for the Republic of Korea

The purpose of this study is introducing the role and importance of the United States in ensuring the safety of South Korea. The USA, in act of signing the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of Korea in October, 1953, has committed to safeguard the national security of South Korea, and, in particular, to provide protection against external aggression, mainly from North Korea. The strengthening of the guarantees is assisted by the American military presence in the territory of the Republic of Korea, and as well holding of joint military exercises by the U.S. and Korean Armies several times a year. The attention is also drawn to the currently U.S.-South Korean military alliance that has been evolving for years, and seeks to adapt it to the challenges and problems of the modern world, such as common missions in Iraq or Afghanistan.

South Korea's State-led Soft Power Strategies: Limits on Inter-Korean Relations

The South Korean government has taken on many of Joseph Nye's ideas as it is promoting a state-led soft power in the form of the cultural hallyu, foreign aid, and domestically, a future-orientated rebranding of South Korea as a multicultural state. Soft power is understood in instrumental terms as well as in more substantive terms. This state-led multiculturalism has challenged widely held beliefs in ethnic homogeneity which have been the mainspring of national identity and national security in South Korea. These beliefs have underscored inter-Korean relations as the two states officially share beliefs despite political and ideological differences. The growing significance of such state-led multiculturalism in Global Korea to attract foreign workers can be linked to a myriad of intentional and unintentional strategic issues arising from this form of state-led soft power promotion. This is particularly significant given the sensitive culture and identity across the East Asian region.

The Different Choices of South Korea: Seeds of Discord of South Korea and US Relations

South Korea–US relations were a success story of international cooperation during the Cold War on the basis of the robust bilateral alliance. In the post‐Cold‐War era, the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and the importance of the United States for South Korea's security are no different from that during the Cold War. However, unlike the past, South Korea has not complied with US leadership during the Kim Dae‐jung and Roh Moo‐hyun administrations, but has adopted policy opposed to that of the United States. This study started with the question of what variables explain South Korean policy toward North Korea in the Kim Dae‐jung and Roh Moo‐hyun administrations and why South Korea has not followed the US leadership since the Kim Dae‐jung presidency, unlike in the past. In order to answer the above puzzle, this study tries to analyze the puzzling situation with the feature of constructivism, such as the change of national identity. From this study, I found that generational change in South Korea from the Korean War generation to the 386 and Internet generations played an important role in the change of South Korean national identity. Also, South Korean younger generations' voting behavior has affected South Korean engagement policy in the Kim Dae‐jung and Roh Moo‐hyun administrations.

Political Prospects for a Nuclear‐Weapons‐Free Zone in Northeast Asia

A Northeast Asian nuclear‐weapons‐free zone (NWFZ) or a Japan–South Korea NWFZ could help entice the DPRK to carry out its commitment in the September 2005 Six‐Party Joint Statement to “abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs”. There are two possible scenarios for the nuclear future of North Korea, and in turn, the security of South Korea and Northeast Asia: containment, in which North Korea remains nuclear‐armed with a growing stockpile of nuclear weapons and gradually improving delivery capabilities; and gradual rapprochement with the USA, South Korea, and Japan. In either of these cases a Northeast Asian NWFZ or a Japan–South Korea NWFZ would improve prospects for regional stability and a denuclearized Korean peninsula and could make a significant impact in light of North Korea's nuclear arming and other recent changes in the security environment in the region. An NWFZ has implications for the future role of nuclear weapons in the regional balance of power.

ROK–U.S. cooperation in preparation for hostile actions by North Korea in possession of nuclear weapons

Abstract Can the United States' extended deterrence guarantee the security of South Korea against nuclear threats posed by North Korea? North Korea manipulates its nuclear capability not only as a means of deterrence but also as a military leverage to threaten the very existence of South Korea. Considering the current pattern of North Korea's behavior and the geopolitical and strategic implications for the Korean peninsula, the U.S. promise of extended deterrence for South Korea appears to have many limitations. In fact, as demonstrated in the sinking of the ROK naval frigate Cheonan incident, North Korea, with its nuclear capability intact, now threatens South Korean security more openly. Accordingly, measures to increase the credibility of America's extended deterrence become ever more imperative such that it will act as a stronger deterrence against further aggressive actions by North Korea and give greater assurance to South Koreans. The U.S. extended deterrence statement in its Nuclear Posture Review...

Assessing the Threat of North Korea's Nuclear Capability

Abstract North Korea's nuclear capability poses a significant threat to South Korea's security and to international peace. The nuclear capability of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has four components: (1) fissile materials; (2) design/manufacture/high-explosive testing; (3) nuclear tests; and (4) miniaturization. This capability can be transformed into a credible nuclear threat. Pyongyang's multiple nuclear devices are already deliverable, while dirty bombs employing radioactive materials also pose significant security risks. Increased inter-Korean exchanges risk unintended consequences as expanded transportation routes may be exploited by Pyongyang as corridors for the clandestine introduction of nuclear devices and dirty bombs into Seoul. Furthermore, South Korea may become an unwitting intermediary for North Korean WMD proliferation. The significance of the DPRK nuclear threat must be viewed from the international perspective of eliminating similar threats. North Korea's obvious nuclear capability is compelling evidence that the country has successfully developed nuclear weapons by persistently violating all major international agreements and deceiving the international community. It is a critical security threat to South Korea, so it should be prepared for the worst-possible scenario. In view of the serious challenges posed by nuclear-armed North Korea, South Korea must develop appropriate strategies and policy measures to counter the threat. A new strategic paradigm would integrate coercion and inducement based on the principle of reciprocity; namely, to use carrots and sticks concurrently. Under this overarching paradigm, a set of measures must be taken to counter the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

A View from Asia: The North Korean Missile Threat and Missile Defense in the Context of South Korea's Changing National Security Debate

This article examines the current state of the national security debate in South Korea in the context of rapid democratization, a growing desire on the part of South Korea to pursue a more balanced and independent foreign policy posture even as it retains its core alliance with the United States, and the confluence of political and strategic forces that have combined to create unprecedented change in South Korea's security perceptions. While the missile defense issue continues to remain as a relatively minor facet of South Korea's overall national security debate, it illustrates the extent to which South Korean views have shifted since the end of the Cold War but particularly since the advent of the Kim Dae Jung government (1998–2003) and continuing well into the administration of Roh Moo Hyun. Specifically, the article traces the changing contours of South Korea's national security paradigm, Seoul's “New Thinking” on key foreign policy and national security issues, the missile threat and missile defense, and on-going efforts to modernize the U.S.-ROK alliance.

JAPAN-US-CHINA: A NEW STRATEGIC TRIANGLE? THE IMPACT ON KOREA

Abstract The emergence of a new triangle among the US, Japan, and China has overshadowed the preceding relationship among the US, the former Soviet Union, and China although the structure is relatively infantile, unstable, and loose. Due to the radical shift in power capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region, and theluctuation in economic, technological, military, political, and socio-economic foundations of national power, the bilateral basis of the triangular structure is more unstable than was the case in the past. Diverging political structures, decision-making systems, belief systems, leadership factors, misperceptions, as well as systemic dynamics are impacting on individual state behavior. The significance of internal sources of foreign policy is nowhere more important than the inter-Korean process, where weapons proliferation, and possible regime collapse pose serious security challenges. The concerned outside powers must recognize the inherent limitations of their influence on Pyongyang's evolution, and the domestic conditions that drive Pyongyang's adventurous policy. Here, the recognition that only Kim Jong-il as of this moment can drive through any limited reform in the context of military/political guarantees to his regime, most probably from China and Russia, and possibly from the US, and South Korea must be made. In order to facilitate this process, outside powers must encourage “reKoreanization” of the inter-Korean process. In this regard, a gradual autonomization of national security in South Korea is essential.

Social Security in South Korea and Singapore: Explaining the Differences

ABSTRACTThe paper sets out statutory social security arrangements in Korea and Singapore and then explains the differences between them. It finds that while Korea has a relatively advanced social security system based primarily on social insurance, Singapore has a patchwork of programmes based on forced saving, tax allowance, public assistance, and public insurance schemes run along commercial lines. Moreover, the increasing share of government expenditure devoted to social security in Korea stands in sharp contrast to the declining share in Singapore. The paper accounts for the variations in terms of the different economic objectives of the two states and the different international and societal constraints they face.In contrast to South Korea* which has rapidly established an elaborate set of income maintenance and health care programmes, Singapore continues to resist expansion of such programmes. The objective of this paper is to describe the social security programmes in the two countries and then explain why the supposedly similar political economies have pursued entirely different social security strategies. The paper will argue that to understand the variations, we need to examine the varying economic objectives of the two states and the different international and societal constraints they face.

Multipolarité et prolifération en Extrême-Orient : implications pour la sécurité régionale et coréenne

Multipolar East Asia and Implications for Regional and Korean Security by Chung Min Lee Despite recent encouraging developments such as economic growth, démocratisation and reconciliations in Asia, difficulties loom ahead. Weapons procurement, notably of ballistic missiles, and the modernisation of defence capabilities are particularly apparent in the region. They are linked both to prosperity, as well as to concerns about China and about nuclear proliferation (for instance in India, Pakistan and North Korea). In spite of an assertive atitude, American non-proliferation means seem limited. Washington thus veered towards a more conciliatory approach to North Korea, which has been of some concern to Seoul. Some doubt has been cast over the credibility of the US commitment to South Korea's security including by means of nuclear weapons in case of North Korean attack. The end of the cold war has not fundamentally changed the Korean peninsula's dilemma. Reunification seems inevitable in the future, depending on political changes in the North.

South Korea's Participation in the SDI

This article illuminates a serious concern about South Korea's participation in the Strategic Defense Initiative. There is a perception that it may adversely affect the strategic environment in Northeast Asia, in which a most precarious military balance is maintained. The author advises that the Republic of Korea's participation might destabilize the area. Also, it is in South Korea's security interests not to aggravate the Soviet Union, which is most likely to use its proxy, North Korea, to disturb this region. The author proposes that South Korea should participate in a regional version of SDI-a Northeast Asian defense initiative (NADI) initiated by Japan-as an alternative to its commitment to the U.S. SDI. Since Japan is a nonnuclear weapons state, Moscow may accept a Japanled NADI as a genuine defensive system.

South Korea 1978: The Growing Security Dilemma

ON OCTOBER 27, the United Nations Command in Korea announced the discovery of a North Korean underground invasion tunnel in the southern sector of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) near Panmunjom.' The rocky arch-shaped tunnel, which is about 1.7 kilometers long from the northern DMZ boundary or 435 meters into the southern sector from the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), was the third North Korean-built tunnel to be discovered. The first and second tunnels had been discovered in November 1974 and March 1975, respectively, and at least a dozen more tunnels are believed to remain undetected. Considering its location and size-the tunnel was discovered less than 30 miles north of Seoul and was judged to be big enough for heavily armed troops to pass three or four abreast-the apparent purpose of the tunnel was for use as a link in the shortest invasion route to Seoul. The announcement of the tunnel's discovery was well timed to rebut the assessment made a few days earlier in Tokyo by the visiting Chinese Deputy Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing and Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo that there was currently no war tension on the Korean peninsula. The Teng-Fukuda statement on the Korean situation and the discovery of the North Korean infiltration tunnel were two contradictory manifestations that underscored the complexity and acuteness of South Korea's security dilemma in 1978. On the one hand, China's improved relationship with Japan and the United Stateo