South Korea despite not being a NATO member has become the key attendee at the NATO conference underway in Washington D.C.:
One of the most influential people attending the NATO summit in Washington leads a country that is not a member. Yet it holds vast stores of weapons sought by the bloc to help Ukraine fight off Russia, and perhaps tip the battle in Kyiv’s favor. Ukraine needs artillery shells. South Korea has millions, and there is a push to convince its President Yoon Suk Yeol to change a government policy that prohibits Seoul from sending lethal aid to countries at war. Yoon is attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit this week for the third time, but this visit is different.
Just weeks before it opened, his government said a defense pact signed between Russia and North Korea in June has made it consider whether it’s time to start sending weapons to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces. Zelenskyy, who has been seeking weapons from South Korea since Russia’s full-scale invasion started in 2022, will be attending the summit in Washington aimed at proving that NATO is as strong as ever in its 75th year.
He is expected to speak at a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Four partners — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea — the Yomiuri newspaper reported, where he could again lay out his case for weapons. “The types of weapons South Korea can provide Ukraine are the ones that can make breakthroughs in the current stalemate on the front lines,” said Park Won Gon, a professor at South Korea’s Ewha Womans University specializing in international relations.
Stars and Stripes
You can read more at the link.
This just further shows what an important geostrategic, economic, and military power South Korea has become by being invited to attend a NATO summit:
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its Indo-Pacific partners, including South Korea, plan to discuss resilience, support for Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies during their summit in Washington next week, a senior U.S. administration official said Friday.
The NATO summit is set to take place in the U.S. capital from Tuesday through Thursday. The leaders of the alliance’s four Indo-Pacific partners (IP4) — South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan — have been invited to the summit that marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding.
“We are bringing together some of our closest non-NATO partners to have a discussion around issues like resilience, cyber, disinformation, technology and the like,” the official said in a virtual briefing.
He added, “This particular grouping of IP4 as we call them in NATO lingo — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and ROK … These are some of our closest partners that we work with in the region.” ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
I learned something new today that Hawaii and Guam are not covered by the NATO alliance simply because none of their landmasses touch the Atlantic Ocean:
Sweden became the newest member of NATO earlier this month, joining 31 nations in the security alliance, including the United States. Well, make that 49 of the 50 United States.
Because in a quirk of geography and history, Hawaii is not technically covered by the NATO pact.
If a foreign power attacked Hawaii – say the US Navy’s base at Pearl Harbor or the headquarters of the Indo-Pacific Command northwest of Honolulu – the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would not be obligated to rise to the Aloha State’s defense.
CNN
Here is why Hawaii and Guam being left out is significant:
John Hemmings, senior director of the Indo-Pacific Foreign and Security Policy Program at the Pacific Forum, says Hawaii’s exclusion from NATO removes “an element of deterrence” when it comes to the possibility of a Chinese strike on Hawaii in support of any potential Taiwan campaign.
Leaving Hawaii out lets Beijing know that NATO’s European members potentially have a bit of an “escape clause” when it comes to defending US territory in such a hypothetical situation, he says. (……)
Hemmings also makes an argument for Guam, the US Pacific island territory some 3,000 miles farther west than Hawaii, to be included in NATO’s umbrella.
The island, which has long been a focal point of North Korean saber rattling, is home to Andersen Air Force Base, from which the US can launch its B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers across the Indo-Pacific.
Hemmings likens Guam’s exclusion from NATO to how the US left the Korean Peninsula outside of a line it drew across the Pacific to deter the Soviet Union and China from spreading communism in January 1950. Five months after the so-called Acheson Line was drawn, the Korean War began.
“The adversary feels emboldened to carry out military conflict and you end up having a war anyway,” Hemmings says.
You can read more at the link, but is anyone confident that NATO would respond for example to a Chinese attack on Guam in response to a Taiwan contingency? Other than the UK and likely Canada who else in NATO could be trusted to deploy troops to the Pacific to support such a conflict?
Over time this makes me wonder if NATO will become more of a factor for security on the Korean peninsula than the United Nations? With Russia and China on the UN Security Council any attempt to assist South Korea to repel North Korean aggression would likely get vetoed. It makes sense that President Yoon would pursue cooperation with an alternate security organization:
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| President Yoon Suk Yeol and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hold Individually Tailored Partnership Programs signed by the two sides during a meeting at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Center in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday (local time). Yonhap |
South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) signed a new partnership agreement composed of 11 documents, called Individually Tailored Partnership Programs (ITPPs), which will cover bilateral cooperation in new sectors such as cybersecurity, new technologies, climate change and the defense industry.
Korea Times
The agreement was signed at a meeting between President Yoon Suk Yeol and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Vilnius, Lithuania, Tuesday (local time). Yoon is currently visiting the Baltic country to attend the 2023 NATO summit.
“This year’s participation in the NATO summit is aimed at institutionalizing the framework of cooperation between South Korea and NATO through ITPPs and discuss cooperation in military intelligence and cybersecurity,” Yoon said during the meeting.
You can read more at the link.
Here is an interesting diplomatic development for South Korea since it shows that NATO countries recognize the ROK’s military capabilities as an alliance partner:
South Korea has decided to establish a mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, a presidential official said Wednesday ahead of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s participation in a NATO summit next week.
Yoon will attend the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29 and 30, on his first overseas trip as president, National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han said during a press briefing.
South Korea is not a member of the military alliance but has been invited as a partner nation, along with countries, such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The new NATO mission will be headed by the South Korean ambassador to Belgium, who currently also doubles as the ambassador to the European Union, a second presidential official said.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
