On Monday, the United States State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, raised concerns over the possibility of North Korea conducting a seventh nuclear test. Answeri

On Monday, the United States State Department spokesperson, Ned Price, raised concerns over the possibility of North Korea conducting a seventh nuclear test. Answering questions from journalists in a 

, Price stated that North Korea has finalised all of the steps needed to conduct a nuclear test, severely threatening peace and security in the region. These concerns have only followed what has been a tumultuous time on the Korean Peninsula. Since the breakdown of the Hanoi Summit in 2019, the Korean Peninsula has experienced heightened tensions courtesy of North Korea’s missile tests and the US-ROK joint military exercises. 

On March 13, the United States and South Korea 

 into yet another joint military exercise, their largest in five years. These drills are set to continue for ten days, making it the most prolonged continuous military training held between the two nations. While the United States has defended these drills as part of a defensive measure, North Korea has 

 them as grave military provocations. As a direct response to the recent military exercises, North Korea 

 two short-range ballistic missiles, indicating its intentions to further escalate the tensions if the US and South Korea do not cease the military drills. 

While the US and ROK administrations have attempted to employ military drills as a tool for pressurising North Korea into entering negotiations on denuclearisation, this arm-twisting tactic has seemingly backfired. Since the beginning of the joint military exercises, North Korea has conducted an 

 number of missile tests, firing around seventy missiles in 2022 alone. This staggering statistic has been backed by DPRK’s 

 of a nuclear first-use policy in September last year, reserving the right to use nuclear weapons preemptively “in case the command and control system over the state nuclear forces is placed under danger owing to an attack by hostile forces.”

These provocative actions undertaken by both sides have seriously jeopardised peace and security in the region. North Korea has significantly ramped up its missile testing in recent months indicating the possibility of a nuclear test which could result in further miniaturisation of its nuclear warheads. Such a situation will have a significant impact on the security of the United States' strategic assets in the region, as well as those of its allies. Consequently, a nuclear test can significantly alter the region's geopolitics, putting the entire world in danger of nuclear annihilation. Such a situation calls for an immediate and cardinal end to the hostilities on the Korean Peninsula and a return back to negotiations. However, it is highly unlikely that such a move will eventually come from the North Korean side. The rationale behind North Korea’s nuclear proliferation programme has been to ensure regime survival. The inability of the current status quo to challenge North Korea’s regime survival limits the chances of the North Korean leadership voluntarily entering denuclearisation negotiations. On the other hand, the international community cannot wait for a nuclear test to seriously consider initiating denuclearisation talks. Hence, the negotiation process must emerge from the efforts of the international community. 

While the United States and South Korea have claimed the military drills to be a viable way of bringing North Korea to the negotiating table, there is no surety from either past experiences or policy assessments that such a tactic can prove to help establish peace on the Peninsula. The United States and South Korean administrations have so far claimed to keep the diplomatic option open with North Korea. However, for diplomacy and dialogue to become a reality, arrangements necessary for establishing trust and cooperation must be actively pursued. In such a pursuit, however, the current arrangements posing as impediments to the establishment of a peaceful order must also be dismantled. A starting point for this can be giving up a hostile policy in favour of a policy rooted in the principles of trust and cooperation. The United States and South Korea must recognise that the nuclear issue will not cease to exist without engaging with North Korea. However, the continued hostilities, whether in the form of military drills or 

 North Korea as an enemy, do not serve the purpose of ensuring trust and cooperation in the negotiation process. Such a policy also prevents diplomatic manoeuvering in instances where dialogue might be possible. 

The United States and South Korean administrations must recognise the redundancy of the current policy measures in resolving the nuclear threat and look towards necessitating policies favouring a return back to the negotiation table. As North Korea steers through a major 

, it is possible that furthering aid in an attempt to better relations can serve to build trust and cooperation which can become the bedrock of concrete negotiations in the future. The international community must not pass on such an opportunity before the crisis on the Korean Peninsula reaches a point of no return.

Cover Photo: (Photo White House / Cameron Smith, via Wikimedia Commons)

Need of the Hour: A New North Korea Policy

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