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Despite the meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un which created great expectations for the progress of US-DPRK negotiations, North Korea has recently fired several short-range ballistic missiles and new long-range artillery, signaling a possible buildup of nuclear power. The military threat that has created a deadlock in the peace process on the Korean Peninsula consists not only of nuclear weapons, but also biological and chemical weapons. Ms. Jinkyung Baek, a research associate and a project manager at the East Asia Institute (EAI), and Dr. Chaesung Chun, a professor at Seoul National University and the Chair of EAI’s Center for National Security Studies, argue that biological and chemical weapons “cost less to produce than nukes and are second only to nuclear weapons in terms of the ability to pose an immediate military threat,” and therefore cannot be ignored. If biological and chemical weapons are not included in the North`s denuclearization process, a major military threat will still remain even after the regime’s nuclear weapons have been dismantled. Thus, Ms. Baek and Dr. Chun emphasize that South Korea “must work to ensure that the final result is a comprehensive agreement” to build genuine peace on the Korean Peninsula. [Read Commentary]
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