US, China Drop 'Korean Peninsula Denuclearization' From Security Documents

The simultaneous omission of "Korean Peninsula denuclearization" from recent security documents by both the United States and China demands heightened vigilance from the South Korean government.

The National Security Strategy (NSS) report released by the US on Monday contained no mention of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula or any reference to North Korea, unlike the NSS issued during the first Trump administration. The 2017 NSS explicitly stated that the US "is ready to respond with overwhelming force to North Korean aggression and will improve options to enforce denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Concerns are emerging that North Korea's denuclearization may have fallen from America's primary agenda as Washington focuses on preventing China's invasion of Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific region.

Hong Kong media reported Tuesday that China's white paper titled "Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-proliferation in the New Era," released late last month, omitted the phrase "supports denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The passage stating support for "establishing nuclear-free zones on the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere," which appeared in the previous white paper issued in 2005, was removed.

The deletion of "Korean Peninsula denuclearization" from US and Chinese security documents could be perceived as tacit acceptance or neglect of North Korea's nuclear program. Some have also expressed concern that President Lee Jae-myung's "END" initiative—announced at the UN General Assembly in September, proposing exchanges with the North and normalization of relations as steps toward denuclearization—could provide justification for tolerating the North's nuclear weapons.

President Lee has also presented a "three-stage roadmap" of "freeze-reduce-denuclearize" for North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, but success will be impossible without diplomatic cooperation with the US and China and coordination of North Korea policy.

We must be wary that the release of security documents omitting "Korean Peninsula denuclearization" by both the US and China could lead the North Korean regime to miscalculate that it need not abandon its nuclear weapons. If Pyongyang continues to refuse dialogue while Washington and Beijing relegate the North Korean nuclear issue to a lower priority, the path to denuclearization could become even more treacherous.

The government must maintain the highest level of vigilance and prepare sophisticated countermeasures to prevent the North Korean nuclear threat from escalating due to shifts in US and Chinese positions. Tolerance or neglect of North Korea's nuclear program could ultimately result in Seoul being bypassed in nuclear negotiations and trigger a security crisis.

We must always recognize that our security is directly exposed to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, and there must be no wavering whatsoever in the principle of Korean Peninsula denuclearization.