Since Kim Jong-un came to power, even after North Korea declared the completion of its nuclear arsenal(2018), through the nuclear decree(2022) and discussions with the Party's Central Military Commission(2022), North Korea has focused not only on Nucl...
Since Kim Jong-un came to power, even after North Korea declared the completion of its nuclear arsenal(2018), through the nuclear decree(2022) and discussions with the Party's Central Military Commission(2022), North Korea has focused not only on Nuclear weapon but also on quantitative and qualitative strengthening of conventional forces. It can be evaluated as unusual in that countries that have completed Nuclear weapon reduce the proportion of conventional forces, while North Korea does not neglect the development of conventional forces despite the ‘declaration of the completion of Nuclear weapon.’
Recent research trends on North Korea's Nuclear weapon and military strategy have generally been biased toward the present and the future. Existing prior studies have focused only on the analysis of security threats and countermeasures to North Korea's ‘nuclear test’ and North Korea's ‘Nuclear weapon and do not adequately explain the essential recognition and military-strategic goals of selective conventional force strengthening after North Korea's ‘declaration of the completion of Nuclear weapon(2018)’.
This study tested hypotheses not addressed by previous studies by comparatively analyzing the Rodong Sinmun and the Korean Central News Agency, which objectively reflect the ideology of the high-level North Korean regime, and focusing on the strengthening of North Korea's selective conventional forces and changes in military strategy(quantitative and qualitative strengthening Dual policy, strategic combination strategy) to compensate for the imperfection of its Nuclear weapon.
The research showed that the goal of the modern change in North Korea's military strategy is to achieve the expansion of the spatial and instrumental range of deterrence through the combination of Nuclear weapon and selective conventional force enhancement, and that North Korea is moving away from the traditional military strategy based on conventional forces in the past and pursuing a change in military strategy as it intended.
Since the coming to power of State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un, North Korea has pursued the ‘Byungjin Line of Economic Nuclear weapon(2013)’ to justify the succession of power to State Affairs Commission Chairman Kim Jong-un while responding to changes in the strategic environment in Northeast Asia surrounding the North Korean nuclear issue, and has changed from North Korea's traditional military strategic tactics focused on conventional military capabilities to ‘nuclear strategy and Nuclear force operation strategy’ in line with modern warfare based on the ‘completion of Nuclear force(2018)’. However, even after the ‘completion of its Nuclear force’, North Korea emphasized the ‘four strong-power lines’ and focused on modernizing its conventional forces. After the completion of Nuclear weapon(2018), it seems that the country is ending the Byungjin line and changing to a nuclear-conventional integrated military strategy in line with modern warfare. The internal and external situation facing North Korea is accelerating this move.
As a result, it was found that the modern change in North Korea's military strategy can confirm the will of the North Korean power to change the military-strategic change of ‘extended deterrence’ based on the expansion of the spatial and instrumental range of deterrence through the strategic combination of Nuclear weapon and selective conventional forces, in order to compensate for the problem of limiting the response to low-intensity threats to South Korea along the quantitative and qualitative military demarcation line of ‘Nuclear weapon.’
This study is limited to the Rodong Sinmun, the Korean Central News Agency, and the Declaration of the Party Central Committee, and second, it does not clearly analyze the changes in the military reorganization of the Korean People's Army and the next-generation military strategy due to future changes in North Korea's modern warfare military strategy (integrated nuclear and conventional operation). However, while it is significant that North Korea has analyzed modern North Korea's military strategy(integrated nuclear and conventional operation) through the completion of North Korea's Nuclear weapon, quantitative and qualitative strengthening Dual policy of selective conventional forces and the strategic combination strategy, subsequent studies require a diverse analysis of the direction of development of modern North Korea's military strategy by compensating for these limitations.