South Korea, under the protection of the United Nations which rallied to their defense in 1950, and the United States which has been an ally since the North Korean invasion, doesn't seem to think that they can count on either to protect them from the nutball in Pyongyang building nuclear weapons.
Obviously, the backing of the United Nations and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, so the desire not to rely on the sainted international community is understandable.
But the South Koreans don't seem to think our value as a deterrent to North Korean nuclear aggression is as rock solid as it once was considered. South Korea used to leave the nuclear stuff to us. Now, South Korea doesn't want to rely on us for the nuclear issue and we will plan with South Korea on how to deal with the northern threat.
I don't know how else to interpret this development:
"Given these concerns, as Minister Kim noted, today we signed a bilateral strategy for tailored deterrence against the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction," he said.
The ministers did not give any immediate indication of what the "tailored deterrence" strategy might entail despite questions from the media. Hagel said it was prompted by a recent push by Pyongyang to build and deploy nuclear weapons. ...
South Korean media reported the new strategy involved the use of all available military assets to launch a pre-emptive strike against the North if there is a clear indication of an imminent nuclear attack by Pyongyang.
A senior U.S. defense official denied the pact addressed the possibility of such a strike and said it provided a framework for discussions on the use of various defense capabilities to generate an effective deterrent against the North.
And while we say this is only about defense, shouldn't that deterrent issue be settled by our overwhelming military strength?
In fact, given South Korea's determination to have stealth F-35s, I think the South Koreans clearly want to take a hand in being able to strike North Korea preemptively to stop North Korea from preparing a nuclear weapon for use against Seoul. This goes along with South Korea's advances in conventional cruise missiles and ballistic missiles.
How long before South Korea decides they must have nuclear weapons, too?
This is how nuclear proliferation explodes. Our enemies don't fear us--despite our physical power--and our friends don't fully believe they can count on us to use that power in their defense. So not only do enemies want nukes, our friends do, too.
Let me know when we get to the "smart" part of our diplomacy.
UPDATE: And here are the cruise missiles, displayed on Armed Forces Day:
About 11,000 troops, 190 weapons systems and other equipment and 120 aircraft were featured in Tuesday's parade at a military airport just south of Seoul. Among them were GPS-guided, Hyunmu-3 cruise missiles with a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) that South Korea developed in recent years. It was the first time the domestically built Hyunmu-3 was publicly shown, according to Seoul's Defense Ministry.
South Korea trusts us more if they have the ability to terrify North Korea on their own, it seems.
