[Citizen College] Missile Politics on the Korean Peninsula

On June 15, 2018, the 9th lecture of “Citizen College: Citizens Between Life and Knowledge” was held by Seongbuk Village Citizenship Education Center and the Korea University Peace and Democracy Institute(PDI). The 9th speaker was Professor Jiil Kim of PDI.

The theme of the lecture was “missile politics on the Korean Peninsula”. He examined the status of missile development on the Korean Peninsula and neighboring countries and suggested the form of defence that Korea should pursue. In the introduction, the lecturer found out the difference between the actors of domestic politics and the actors of international politics, and the importance of missiles in international politics. The missile, while being a conventional weapon, plays a role in maximizing strategic value by linking with nuclear weapons, and acts as a key to understanding the ‘intention of the state’ by stimulating sensitivity among countries. Also, he explained the deterrence theory that prevents the act through threat if the other nation’s behavior is not desirable. After that, He showed the current situation of Korea, which is able to develop missiles with an unlimited warhead weight of 800km after revision of the ROK-US Missile Guidelines, and other neighboring countries such as North Korea, China, Russia, and Japan. He concluded that Korea’s independent missile development is a sovereign act for minimum security from the perspective of the US-ROK alliance and deterrence theory. (Summary: Moon-Hyung Lee)