Kim Jong Un's "End" What The 'Washington Announcement' Signifies 

The Washington Declaration boosts the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea.














South Korea's Seoul: Seoul and Washington declared this week that Kim Jong Un's regime would be "the end" if North Korea used its nuclear weapons against the United States or its ally South Korea.
The severe threat comes at a time when President Yoon Suk Yeol is on a six-day state visit to the United States. During that visit, Yoon Suk Yeol and his counterpart Joe Biden talked about increasing the US security shield for South Korea in light of the increased missile tests by the nuclear-armed North.

But how significant is the harsh statement that sounds? AFP investigates what we know:

Which is it?

The United States' nuclear sway over South Korea is increased by the Washington Declaration.
It includes other measures, such as increased information sharing in the event of a North Korean attack, as well as the regular deployment of a US nuclear submarine to South Korea, which has not occurred since the 1980s.

However, the United States has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in South Korea, and some analysts question the declaration's usefulness.

According to Cheong Seong-chang of the Center for North Korea Studies at the Sejong Institute, "It is questionable whether the North would be afraid of a strategic nuclear submarine equipped with an SLBM with a range of more than 7,400 kilometres (4,600 miles)."

The "excessively lengthy" scope of the submarine's rockets mean it will be unable to hit North Korea in the event that it were in South Korean waters, he said

Is it important?
The state visit without a doubt "addresses another high-water mark for US-South Korea relations, with the expansiveness and profundity of safety, financial, and social participation on full presentation", Leif-Eric Easley, a teacher at Ewha College in Seoul, told AFPOfficials from the United States said that the new arrangement was like what Washington did last time when it was in charge of protecting Europe from the Soviet Union.
Yoon has been attempting to reassure the public of the South, which is becoming increasingly concerned about the United States' commitment to so-called "extended deterrence," in which United States assets, such as nuclear weapons, serve to prevent attacks on allies.

A greater part of South Koreans currently accept the nation ought to foster its own atomic weapons, studies show. Seoul may pursue this option, as Yoon has suggested previously.

Will Korea acquire nuclear weapons?

In no way, shape or form. Experts also stated that this could result in issues.

"One thing stood out: According to Soo Kim, Policy Practice Area Lead at LMI Consulting and a former CIA analyst, "there was an implied agreement that Seoul would not go nuclear."

"The nuclear ambitions of Seoul have been constrained."

AFP was informed by Korea expert and Stanford University sociology professor Gi-Wook Shin that the declaration was "a step forward."

Shin stated, "I don't think this will be sufficient to appease a South Korean public that has increasingly demanded that Seoul develop its own nuclear weapons."

How will North Korea respond?


Closer collaboration between its self-announced most despised adversaries, Washington and Seoul, will undoubtedly concern Kim Jong Un's system and there could be more rocket dispatches to exhibit this, specialists say.

Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean army general, told AFP that North Korea would "downplay the message of reassurance by the US regarding nuclear deterrence" in public.

However, "they will get the message: behind closed doors" in the event that they utilize atomic weapons it will destroy the system", he said.

Experts said Kim isn't going to change course because he has spent decades and a lot of the poor nation's GDP on developing his banned nuclear weapons programs.

Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told AFP, "It is unlikely that North Korea will give up its nuclear weapons by giving in to these threats."


What regarding Trump?


According to Karl Friedhoff of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, who spoke with AFP, the main issue with the Washington Declaration is not the agreement itself but rather the dysfunctional political climate in the United States. As a result, Karl Friedhoff believes that the document may be worthless following the country's upcoming presidential election.

He stated that "very serious discussions" are likely to begin in Seoul as a result of Trump's potential return to power.

"The biggest challenge is something over which the alliance doesn't really have any control," states the US-South Korea relationship. US homegrown legislative issues", he said.

"In Seoul, there is a lot of worry about the GOP returning to the White House, especially Trump. If he wins the election in 2024, the relationship could take a very unpredictably different turn.