As threat of nuclear war grows, Canada’s military support for South Korea ‘very clear,’ says force commander

Not far from the border between North and South Korea, the sound of gunfire was heard in the hills. Troops in combat gear shouted, heavy equipment rumbled.

Today, this field is a training ground. But every US soldier here knows that one day, it could be a battlefield. A new front in the Korean war that was halted by an armistice 70 years ago, but is not officially over.

“We are in an environment that can be very tense,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Justin Wilson. “It’s already tense, and it might get worse.”

In Pyongyang, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed last month to expand his growing arsenal of nuclear missiles to make them more “offensive,” and state media threatened to use them in response to South Korea’s “frantic” military exercises.

At a US training base near Pocheon, soldiers practice loading and firing machine guns in seconds flat, aiming mortars and throwing hand grenades. Others learn to heal wounds while on fire.

Calling for a squad battle, Wilson said the 28,500 American soldiers stationed in South Korea are ready “to fight tonight” – or any time – against the North.

If you explain it, Canada can also be in the thick, said the officer of the Canadian Forces based in Korea – a continuation of the original commitment of the country in this conflict.

“This is very clear,” said Col. Martin Corriveau, the top Canadian here. “If anything happens that disrupts or undermines peace and security here, Canada has stepped in to support and help.”

In the early 1950s, Canada joined a US-led coalition fighting under the umbrella of the United Nations to repel North Korean attacks on the South. The North was supported by China and the Soviet Union.

Canada contribution to the UN forces is one of the largest, with 26,000 soldiers serving. Over three years of war, 516 were killed.

Canada on patrol

The UN Command (UNC) is still based in South Korea and still patrols the demilitarized zone that straddles the border with the North. Nine Canadian soldiers were deployed.

On a sunny afternoon recently at the US army base Camp Humphreys, he visited a memorial to those who died in the war with UNC – a stone map of the Korean peninsula with two soldiers rising from it.

“We fought for this and we stayed,” said another Canadian soldier.

But any Korean war now would be very different from the original war, it might have been nuclear weapons from North Korea: a small tactical device directed at South Korea or an intercontinental ballistic missile that Kim might be a match for a nuclear warhead and aimed at North America.

Since the beginning of 2022, Pyongyang has fired more than 100 test missiles into the sea around the peninsula, and even into Japanese waters.

“In South Korea, we are now a nuclear hostage,” said Cheon Seong-whun, a former security strategy secretary for South Korea’s president.

‘The new situation’

He said South Korea should now consider having nuclear weapons on its own soil to counter those that cross the border — either those developed in the country or an American system permanently based in the south.

A new public opinion survey has shown that the majority of South Koreans support the approach, especially since Seoul has easy access to the North’s conventional and nuclear weapons. Less than 200 kilometers from Pyongyang’s main launch center, some of Seoul’s tallest office buildings have air defense batteries on their roofs.

“This is a new situation and we need to develop a new strategy,” Cheon said, with a message for foreign troops helping to defend South Korea.

“You are a conventional organization. Now, unfortunately, Korea is entering the nuclear age. You must adapt yourself to become a nuclear-oriented organization. Are you ready?”

The world community has tried to convince and coerce Kim to abandon his nuclear buildup, with new danger of the retribution from the White House that “there is no scenario in which the Kim regime can use nuclear weapons and survive.”

Former US president Donald Trump threatened the North Korean leader with “fire and fury” if he ever uses nuclear weapons, but also met and exchanged what he called “love letters.” Nothing worked – not threats, platitudes or negotiations – and not even harsh economic sanctions from the UN.

Pressure on the US

Now the US is facing pressure from South Korea to move forward with its own nuclear arsenal, something US President Joe Biden wants to do for fear of starting an arms race in the region.

At a summit in Washington two weeks ago, Biden promised to send a nuclear-armed submarine on a visit to South Korea and “ironclad” mutual defense. In return, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said Seoul would hold back on the idea of ​​developing its own capabilities.

Together, Yoon said, the two countries will respond “quickly, overwhelmingly and decisively, using the full force of the alliance, including the nuclear weapons of the United States” in the event of an attack.

But with every test launch in the North – and of course if Kim goes ahead with it expected underground nuclear test, the seventh since 2006 – pressure on Yoon for more powerful weapons in the South will grow.

It is impossible to dissuade North Korea from its nuclear program, said Nam Sung-wook, a former adviser with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and a regional expert at Korea University.

“Without nuclear weapons, the Kim Jong-un Dynasty will not survive.”

Nam says Kim has invested heavily in this national concern and fears that giving up its nuclear weapons would leave North Korea vulnerable to attack the way Ukraine became a Russian target after giving up its irreversible nuclear weapons.

A deal to suspend sanctions may slow down the program, Nam said, but it won’t end it.

Others argue that a new approach is needed.

“Sanctions and military pressure have failed. Isolating North Korea has been a disaster,” said Kim Nyeong-uk, a defector from the North 20 years ago. He is currently at the North Korea Development Institute, a Seoul think-tank.

“We must accept them as part of the world community and open a real dialogue.”

Otherwise, both North and South will continue to arm themselves, he said, risking a deadlier Asian conflict.