Washington Declaration: no nuclear redeployment in South Korea

By Mitch Shin

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was warmly welcomed by U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week as he made the first state visit to the United States since Lee Myung-bak's in 2011. As he voluntarily sewed the historical disputes with Japan up in March, all eyes were on his visit to Washington in the expectation of getting remuneration from the U.S. president such as concrete measures to tackle the North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

Following the summit meeting on April 26, Yoon and Biden announced a Washington Declaration, narrating the U.S.' firm defense commitment to South Korea and South Korea's pledge to fully follow the Nonproliferation Treaty. The two leaders also announced the establishment of a Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) to demonstrate the joint commitment to "operate the new extended deterrence system."

The South Korean Presidential Office touted the outcomes of the summit meeting. Yoon had also created a hot clip singing "American Pie" at a White House state dinner after the summit meeting with Biden. His clip apparently made good impressions among Americans as no South Korean president had ever sang an American song at the White House in history. Thanks to Yoon's devotion to marking the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance successfully, the alliance and harmony between South Korea and the U.S. appear to be stronger than ever as they seem to have little difference of opinion on approaches to almost every issue.

However, the worth-nothing part is what "gifts" Yoon received from Biden during the summit meeting.

In the Washington Declaration, Biden reaffirmed the U.S.' "ironclad" commitment to South Korea while emphasizing the importance of strengthening the South Korea-U.S. alliance amid the growing aggression of North Korea. Enhancing the U.S. extended deterrence ― which has been a main policy of the U.S. in tackling North Korean nuclear threats, the U.S. added that it will further "enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula, as evidenced by the upcoming visit of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine" to South Korea. Since the beginning of Yoon's term in May 2022, South Korea and the U.S. have scaled up their joint military drills in response to the unprecedented missile launches of North Korea.

The newly established NCG will be convened at the assistant secretary level and will enhance joint commitments to strengthen extended deterrence. No date has been confirmed for the first meeting of the group yet.

The Presidential Office and the ruling People Power Party gave full credit to Yoon's achievements during the summit meeting. Strictly speaking, however, it is a complete victory for the U.S. as no significant and major development was made on North Korea.

According to the Declaration, Yoon completely ruled out the possibility of South Korea developing nuclear weapons even though the majority of South Koreans support it. He showed full confidence in "U.S. extended deterrence commitments" even though there are no U.S. nuclear strategic assets on the South's soil.

To mollify South Koreans' ambition to have nuclear weapons as an ultimate tool to deter the North Korean preemptive nuclear attack, the U.S. offered a slightly upgraded version of its defense commitment to South Korea by pledging to make its strategic assets more visible in a regular manner. In this context, Yoon has unfurled different reactions from South Korea and the United States as the president who achieved nothing but allowing the South Korean conglomerates to make tremendous investments in the U.S. and the friendly president who showed a kind gesture to the U.S. by singing "American Pie."

In order to tip the balance, the South Korean Presidential Office stated that the Washington Declaration de facto means nuclear sharing with the U.S. However, U.S. authorities swiftly rebutted this claim and clearly drew the line that the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons is off the table. Seoul's hasty comments on the Washington Declaration rather highlighted that a similar version of NATO's nuclear sharing cannot be adopted for the Korean Peninsula as the U.S. does not consider redeploying nuclear weapons to the South.

Also, joint execution and planning on U.S. nuclear operations does not mean nuclear sharing between South Korea and the U.S. as the South has no nuclear weapons. Every decision on the U.S. nuclear weapons can only be made by the U.S. president, meaning the South Korean president has no authority in using U.S. nuclear weapons in the outbreaks of the North using nuclear weapons.

To sum up, the Washington Declaration clearly shows to what extent the U.S. can offer: mobilizing the U.S.' strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula on a regular basis. The redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons on the South's soil and South Korea having its indigenous nuclear weapons are non-negotiable.

Mitch Shin is an assistant editor at The Diplomat. Shin was a non-resident Korea Foundation fellow at Pacific Forum and non-resident research fellow at Institute for Security & Development Policy, Stockholm Korea Center.