The Times - UK (2022-04-09)

42 Saturday April 9 2022 | the times

Wo r l d

Yoon Suk-yeol,

South Korea’s

president-elect,

wants the return

of US “strategic

assets”

South Korea’s president-elect is press-
ing the United States to deploy its most
powerful weapons, such as nuclear
warheads, in the country for the first
time since the Cold War, which would
increase tensions in east Asia.
Yoon Suk-yeol, 61, who takes office
next month, has sent emissaries to
Washington to argue the case for the
return of US “strategic assets”, a term
that could include long-range bombers,
nuclear-powered submarines and air-
craft carriers, and which implies they
would have nuclear weapons.
“The deployment of strategic assets
is an important part of building up ex-
tended deterrence against North
Korea’s provocations,” Park Jin, leader
of a delegation of Yoon’s aides, said after
meetings with senior members of the
Biden administration in Washington.
“In that sense, the issue was included in
the consultation.”
Yoon is determined to break with the
policy of engagement with Kim Jong-
un, North Korea’s leader, that was pur-
sued by Moon Jae-in, his liberal prede-

cessor. This year the North has carried
out an intensive series of missile tests.
American and South Korean officials
fear that it could test a new nuclear war-
head next week.
South Korea remains under the pro-
tection of the US “nuclear umbrella” —
the promise to use nuclear weapons if
necessary in the country’s defence.
However, America removed the mis-
siles in 1991.
The proposal that they should be
returned reflects growing insecurity
caused by the North’s rapid develop-
ment in the past 16 years of nuclear war-
heads and the missiles to carry them.
Last month the North abandoned a
self-imposed, three-and-a-half-year
moratorium to test an intercontinental
ballistic missile that could strike the US.
The region’s other big American ally,
Japan, is also beginning to debate its
non-nuclear policy. In February Shin-
zo Abe, 67, the influential former
prime minister, said the country
should consider “nuclear sharing”
similar to Nato countries, by which
Germany, Italy and Turkey keep
American nuclear weapons
on their territory.
Yoon referred to North
Korea’s intercontinental
ballistic missile test this
week when he visited

Nuclear warheads

Russia
US
China
France
UK
Pakistan
N Korea Source: Arms Control Association

2021 estimate

6,255

350

290

225

165

40-50

5,550

The mother of the first American hos-

tage killed by the Islamic State “Beat-

les” cell has said that the US and British

policy of refusing to negotiate with ter-

rorists puts their citizens’ lives at great-

er risk and called for it to be abandoned.

Diane Foley, whose photographer

son James was beheaded in an Isis prop-

aganda video in 2014, said that more of

the 59 hostages or wrongly held Ameri-

cans around the world faced death or

lengthy detention unless the “arrogant”

ban on negotiations were ended.

Foley, 73, was speaking during a

break in the American trial of El Shafee

Elsheikh, 33, a former British citizen

who denies eight charges related to the

kidnapping, detention and death of her

son, three more US hostages and others

including two British aid workers.

S

wedish divers are plunging

into a subterranean

labyrinth of freezing water as

they map out Sweden’s

longest network of

underwater caves (Tom Kington

writes). A team of 15 wriggled up to

20 metres beneath the remote,

snowy and mountainous Jämtland

region of Sweden where they have

so far mapped out two miles of the

underground course of the

Bjurälven River.

“The water is close to freezing so

we wear dry suits that don’t let

water in, with the risk that if they

tear on the rock you could die,”

said Micke Tilja, 46, an expedition

member.

The group cut through a metre

of ice to find the spot where the

river, which flows into Sweden

from Norway, drops into a hole in

Swedish cave

divers faced

freezing death

at every turn

We need US nuclear

arms to deter Kim,

South Korea pleads

South Korea
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia Editor

Bunkers busted

Extreme-depth “nuclear proof”

bunkers provide no guarantee of

survival because of advances in

weapons technology, according to

research by the Chinese military.

The Army Engineering University

of the People’s Liberation Army

stated that a tunnel 2km below the

ground could be destroyed with a

precise storm of nuclear “buster-

bunker” bombs that would trigger

seismic activity, amplify the

weapons’ power by up to 1,000

times and penetrate ten times

deeper than previously thought.

Researchers admitted that

mounting such an attack, and co-

ordinating the explosions to ensure

the correct shockwaves were

created, would be “difficult”.

However, if successful, the result

would compact and then crush any

structures in their way.

Such an attack would threaten the

US’s command bunker at Cheyenne

Mountain near Colorado Springs,

which is about 610 metres deep.

The Russian government’s

doomsday shelter was buried 300

metres deep in the Ural Mountains.

The UK’s Kelvedon Hatch bunker,

which was decommissioned in 1992,

is 38 metres below ground in Essex.

China operates the deepest

known bunker, the Central Military

China Commission’s Joint Military

Command Centre, located outside

Beijing. The facility is about 2km

underground and said to be able to

hold one million people.

Estimates for the depths that

existing bunker busters can

penetrate vary. The US’s

conventional 14,000 kg GBU-57A/B

Massive Ordnance Penetrator is

reported to go through 61 metres of

5,000 psi concrete. The 1.2 megaton

B83 tactical nuclear bomb is

reported to have the ability to

destroy shelters up to 300 metres

deep.

Last month, during its invasion of

Ukraine, Russia said that it may

deploy nuclear weapons in response

to an “existential threat” to the

country. It further heightened fears

in announcing that it had deployed

hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, a

technology that could deliver

nuclear warheads that no defence

system can defeat.

The Chinese study was

published in the Chinese

Journal of Rock Mechanics

and Engineering.

West must negotiate with

United States

David Charter Washington

The former nurse has devoted the

past eight years to a foundation in

James’s name to advocate for the safe

return of hostages and the protection of

journalists in dangerous regions.

She gave evidence this week in court

on how she had at first hoped that the

Isis video showing her son’s killing by a

masked terrorist known as Jihadi John,

who was later revealed to be a Kuwaiti-

British man, Mohammed Emwazi, was

a “cruel joke”. She only accepted his

death when it was announced that day

by President Obama. “Nobody [from

The team of

divers are the

first to explore a

network of rock

formations in the

Jämtland region

of Sweden

Camp Humphreys, the command

centre of the 28,500 US troops who are

stationed in South Korea.

“Strong deterrence through the

Korea-US military alliance and com-

bined defence posture cannot be em-

phasised enough in a grave inter-

national security situation surrounding

the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

He spoke of his “determination to in-

crease the solidarity” of the alliance

with America to strengthen deterrence

against North Korea’s threats.

Yoon has also promised to “normal-

ise” joint military exercises with the US,

which were reduced or suspended by

Donald Trump. Such exercises infuri-

ated Pyongyang, which regarded them

as rehearsals for invasion.

Tensions could rise further next

week when North Korea has two

notable anniversaries: the tenth anni-

versary of Kim’s inauguration on

Monday and the Day of the Sun on

Friday, marking what would have been

the 110th birthday of his grandfather,

Kim Il-sung, the country’s founding

leader. Such celebrations are often

marked with weapons tests.

Sung Kim, Biden’s special envoy for

North Korea, said the US feared

“another provocative action” on the

anniversary. “We obviously hope not,”

he added. “But we will be prepared.”

America will be cautious about in-

creasing tension in east Asia while the

war in Ukraine continues. Washington

would be under pressure to take action,

however, if Kim staged a nuclear test.

After the failure of Trump’s summits

with Kim, the Biden administration is

ready to negotiate without precondi-

tions at any time. Pyongyang refuses to

do so until the US drops its “hostile

policy”, a reference to the economic

sanctions. The result has been more

than three years of stalemate.

None of Biden’s representatives has

dismissed the proposal to return nu-

clear weapons to Korea. “We are going

to continue to work with our South

Korean allies on making sure that our

capabilities are appropriate to the

threat posed by North Korea and by

their advancing ballistic missile pro-

gramme,” John Kirby, the defence de-

partment spokesman, said. “We are

constantly looking at what the readi-

ness requirements are.”

Wendy Sherman, 72, the deputy

secretary of state, said the US would

“ensure that we take some strong action

to let the North know that they can’t

just keep doing this without any conse-

quences, that we take actions that show

we have a credible deterrence against

any attack”.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is

the subject of intense analysis in east

Asia for the lessons it offers to a region

also facing an assertive authoritarian

superpower in China. For North Korea,

and some South Koreans, the lesson is

that states have to be able to defend

themselves... and a nuclear deterrent is

the best way to do this.

James Foley was

beheaded in Syria

in 2014 by an

Islamic State cell