Deterrence Dilemmas on the Korean Peninsula

This Asia Society Korea Monthly Lecture series addresses extended deterrence on the Korean Peninsula. As North Korea has developed a larger, more capable, more diversified nuclear arsenal, US provision of extended deterrence for South Korea has become more complicated. Consequently, the US and South Korea are developing and adopting plans for strengthening extended nuclear deterrence on and around the Korean Peninsula.

Nonetheless, leading South Korean politicians have increasingly voiced concerns about the credibility of US extended nuclear deterrence for South Korea, with some—including President Yoon—broaching the idea of South Korea acquiring its own nuclear deterrent, as well as other measures such as enhanced nuclear use planning, greater strategic asset deployment, or re-introduction of tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula. Asia Society Korea welcomes three outstanding panelists to discuss these issues and how they impact regional security and nonproliferation.

Moderator

Mason Richey is a senior contributing writer to Asia Society Korea and an associate professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Seoul, South Korea). Dr. Richey has also held positions as a POSCO Visiting Research Fellow at the East-West Center (Honolulu, HI) and a DAAD Scholar at the University of Potsdam.

His research focuses on U.S. and European foreign and security policy as applied to the Asia-Pacific. Recent scholarly articles have appeared (inter alia) in Pacific Review, Asian Security, Global Governance, and Foreign Policy Analysis. Shorter analyses and opinion pieces have been published in War on the Rocks, Le Monde, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and Forbes, among other venues.

Dr. Richey received his Ph.D. from Binghamton University, New York.

Watch Dr. Richey's recent conversation with Dr. Van Jackson about security, economy, and policy toward the Asia-Pacific.

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Panelists

Maria Castillo Fernandez, European diplomat/official of Spanish nationality, now Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Korea, previously EU Ambassador in Malaysia from 2016-2020, Head of Division for India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh since September 2012 at the European External Action Service of the European Union, in charge of managing and coordinating the European Union's overall relations with these South Asian countries as well as with the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

From 2008 to September 2012, posted in Hong Kong, representing the EU as the Head of the Office of the European Union accredited to Hong Kong and Macao SARs.

From September 2005-2008, she worked as Deputy Head of Mission at the EU Delegation in Seoul (Republic of Korea) in charge of EU political relations and economic cooperation activities with the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Prior to this, Ms Castillo was responsible, in Brussels, for the European Commission’s overall relations with the Korean Peninsula, including both Republic of Korea and DPRK (2000-2005).

An extensive career in the European Commission also included posting as:

Desk Officer for relations with Russia (1996-2000) in charge of implementing the European political and economic relations with Russia;
Legal Advisor and manager of research programmes in the field of exchanges and mobility of EU scientists and research networks (1990-1996);
Legal Advisor in charge of thematic human rights issues, with publications on the right of children under European law in the European Law Review (1989).

Ms Castillo completed postgraduate studies in European law, economics and international relations with two masters, one at the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium) and a second at the Institute of European Studies (Strasbourg, France) following a degree in law from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain).

Her mother tongue is Spanish but she is fluent in English and French, with good knowledge of German and Dutch and passive knowledge of Portuguese and Italian. She has some notions of Mandarin and Korean from her postings abroad.

Ms Castillo was decorated with the Cruz de Oficial de la Orden del Mérito Civil by the King of Spain on 24 June 2008 for strengthening relations between the EU and the Korean Peninsula.

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Dr. Go Myong-Hyun is a senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Previously, Dr. Go was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research applies quantitative perspectives to traditional and non-traditional security issues, with special focus on North Korea, sanctions enforcement, and security and strategic dimensions of technology.

Dr. Go’s latest publications include Not Under Pressure: How Pressure Leaked of North Korea Sanctions (2020) and The Rise of Phantom Traders: Russian Oil Exports to North Korea (2018). Dr. Go received a B.A. in Economics and M.A. in Statistics from Columbia University in the City of New York, and a Ph.D. in policy analysis from the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, California.

He is a Munich Young Leader of Munich Security Conference 2015, and is currently a member of the Advisory Committee of the ROK Ministry of National Defense, Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

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Josh Smith oversees political and general news coverage of North and South Korea, including Pyongyang’s missile advancements, the unprecedented summits between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, and the fraught alliance between Seoul and Washington.

In 2018 Josh reported on the ground in North Korea on Kim’s new message of economic advancement and international engagement. Previously, he spent nearly five years based in Kabul, covering the war in Afghanistan as well as the fight against ISIS in Iraq.

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Event Details

In-person

Tue 28 Feb 2023

12 - 1:30 p.m.

Seoul

Click for directions