Koreans clamor for U.S. nukes as NATO showers Ukraine with armor and Washington buys missile-tracking satellites

(Originally published Jan. 6 in “What in the World“) North Korea’s drumbeat of missile tests has spooked South Koreans to the point that they’re asking the U.S. to bring nuclear weapons back to the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. kept nukes in Korea until the early 1990s, when it withdrew them as part of an arms control treaty with the soon-to-collapse Soviet Union. Seoul can’t develop its own nukes as a signatory to the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. But North Korea, which withdrew from the treaty in 2003, conducted a record number of missile tests last year, even launching an intercontinental ballistic missile and Washington has warned that it’s close to conducting a fresh nuclear test.

The last straw for many South Koreans, apparently, came last week when North Korea managed to slip five drones across the demilitarized zone into South Korea, with one even reaching Seoul.

South Korea is already under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, meaning the U.S. would deploy nuclear weapons to defend it if necessary. And South Korea is already protected by some of the best anti-missile systems money can buy, including the Patriot missiles Washington has now promised Ukraine and a Thaad (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system.

But many in South Korea feel that isn’t enough of a security blanket. If the U.S. won’t redeploy nuclear weapons to Korea as a deterrent, some say, it should at least start including nuclear weapons in joint military exercises.

The U.S., meanwhile, is slowly moving towards realizing Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars initiative. The U.S. Space Force has just awarded contracts to Raytheon and Boeing to build satellites that would detect and track missiles from orbit, presumably so that ground-based weapons like Thaad, Aegis and Ground-Based Midcourse Defense can shoot them down if they pose a threat to the U.S. or its allies. No price tags for the satellites were disclosed, but Congress approved $408.5 million for the program in the 2023 defense budget.

Back on Earth, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are falling over themselves to outfit Ukraine with more advanced weaponry with which to drive out Russian invaders now that they seem to be on the backfoot. After France said it would send Ukraine armored personnel carriers, the Pentagon on Thursday confirmed that U.S. President Joe Biden had approved sending BAE Systems’ Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine and that M1 Abrams tanks are now being considered. Germany also agreed to send Ukraine some of its Schützenpanzer Marder 1 infantry fighting vehicles.

Tanks, fighter jets and long-range Atacms are the only weapons left that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hasn’t yet been able to convince Biden to give him. When Russia appeared to have the upper hand, Biden appeared much warier of giving Zelensky weapons that could be used to attack Russia or be used as an excuse by Putin to retaliate directly against NATO.

But in May, Biden caved on allowing shipments of M177 howitzers to Ukraine. By the end of the month, Biden had also reversed his refusal to supply Ukraine with M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, a reversal so significant that Biden took the trouble of explaining his decision to The Times. Last month, Biden promised Ukraine a Patriot missile battery after Ukraine showed that, even without long-range American weapons, it had the capability to organize attacks inside Russia.

Not to be one-upped by Washington, Berlin has said it will also send Ukraine one of its Patriot batteries.