Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Military tensions surrounding the Korean Peninsula increase as North Korea reinforces WMD

The MND publishes 2016 Defense White Paper

Introduced defense policies and strong defense posture, as well as plans to improve our security and defense capacity

The Ministry of National Defense published the 2016 Defense White Paper on January 11. The purpose of this biennial Defense White Paper is to introduce the government’s defense policies and strong defense posture in detail, and to improve military transparency. It revaluates the increasing threats of North Korean nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and suggests plans to improve our posture and ability. The Korea Defense Daily is providing a summary of the MND’s basic policies and key contents of this new 2016 Defense White Paper
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The unstable global situation is a rising security threat

With the spread of supernational threats and the emergence of new threats, the uncertainty of our security is growing amid continuous threats around the world over traditional factors of conflict, such as territory, religion and race. In the Asia-Pacific region, there are sharp conflicts over maritime jurisdiction in the South China Sea between nations including the U.S. and China, and as North Korea continues to provoke the international community with nuclear weapons and missiles, security concerns are rising. There are refugee problems and terroristic threats across Europe, while various factors including domination of violent extremism force and conflict between religious denominations are creating an uneasy situation around the Middle East and Africa.

Violent extremist armed forces such as the Islamic State of Iraq-Levant (ISIL) are committing acts of terrorism around the world as well as expanding their influence not only in the Mideast but to Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. Since the incident in which Sony Pictures was hacked by North Korea, countries around the world have been focusing on countermeasures against cyber threats. There are also a number of important security threats we need to overcome through international cooperative efforts, including infectious diseases, MERS and the Zika virus, climate change and other disasters.

U.S., China, Japan and Russia expand their influence.

“Asia’s Paradox“ continues in Northeast Asia, and conflict structures such as U.S.-China cooperation have become an important variable affecting the stability of the Northeast security order. The U.S. and China can cooperate or compete with each other depending on the situation, but when key national interests collide, the conflict can be intensified. Japan and Russia are expanding their influence, and strengthening their military power competitively in the strategic relation between the U.S. and China.

North Korea has been continuing to establish the foundation of Kim Jong Un centered rule by holding the 7th Labour Party conference (May, 2016), the Supreme People’s assembly (June) and Youth League (August), but factors that are destabilizing the system still remain, including the ongoing financial difficulties, increased defections among high-ranked personnel, etc.

Kim Jong Un serves as chairman of the Workers’ Party, chairman of the Administrative Commission and the supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, strengthening his one-man governing system. To maintain a military power that is superior to the South's, he continues to invest in enhancing the performance of traditional weapons and is focused on boosting asymmetric power such as nuclear and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), missile, long-range artillery, underwater fighting power, special warfare and cyber unit, etc.

North Korea is suppressing our government’s policy toward the North to take the initiative in South-North relations, and using a ‘carrot-and-stick strategy’ that combines conversation and negotiation, criticism and threats to avoid sanctions and pressure from the international community. As well, North Korea has been continuing armed provocations in contact areas, in addition to provocations through cyber attacks and test flights of unmanned air vehicles, raising military tension around the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea focuses its capability on enhancing nuclear capabilities

In spite of sanctions and pressures from the UN and the international community, North Korea has been steadily engaging in nuclear tests to firm up its position as a ‘nuclear weapon state’ abroad, and has focused on enhancing its nuclear capabilities, like test firing of long-range missile and Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM). In addition, the North will continue aggressively pressing the U.S. to abandon its hostile policy, and is seeking to restore North Korea-China relations by resuming contact with high-ranking Chinese diplomats, while trying to break from diplomatic isolation by making use of conflicts between the U.S. and China for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment of the U.S. Armed Forces in Korea.

<Defense Policy Division, the MND>
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