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While the United States has reduced the overall number of nuclear warheads supporting U.S. extended deterrence in East Asia, North Korea has been developing additional nuclear weapons and missiles to maintain a stronger security posture against the United States. Therefore, South Korea, which is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella, is getting more skeptical of the credibility of the U.S. nuclear policy in regard to South Korea. Meanwhile, a well-organized North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) has assured allies of the credibility of the U.S. extended deterrence policy in Europe. This study demonstrates that South Korea could enhance its assurance of U.S. commitment to extended deterrence by adopting the NATO NPG as a model of a nuclear consultative body. Enhancing South Korea-U.S. nuclear policy coordination as presented in this thesis would bolster extended deterrence of North Korea's threats and enhance South Korea's assurance of U.S. extended deterrence. Captain, Republic of Korea Army Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

Many people are in favor of South Korea enhancing nuclear deterrence options (the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons or its indigenous nuclear weapons). Since North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006, a majority of those surveyed in opinion polls have favored enhancing nuclear deterrence. The results of these polls have attracted the attention of domestic and foreign media as well as those in politics and academia. However, questions remain, such as what this public opinion means both implicitly and explicitly, and what factors have prevented public opinion from influencing the government’s policy-making decisions. This thesis focuses on domestic political factors rather than international factors, such as the feasibility and effectiveness of nuclear deterrence options. This thesis argues that public opinion in favor of enhancing nuclear deterrence options did not influence the government’s policy formation due to 1) characteristics for the public opinion in favor of enacting a new policy, and 2) the existence of alternative policies to the enhancing nuclear deterrence options. Dae-wi, Republic of Korea Army Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

The DPRK’s WMD programs pose increasing threats to security in the region. To better understand that challenge, this thesis investigates specifically the consequences for U.S. and ROK strategic postures arising from current DPRK efforts to develop Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) and Ballistic Missile Submarines (SSB). This SLBM/SSB effort bears directly on the ROK Navy’s current efforts to counter wider technology and capability improvements by the DPRK Navy in the undersea domain as well as broader ROK interests in adopting a more global focus for its military posture. The DPRK’s SLBM/SSB ambitions also directly impact U.S. security interests on issues including extended deterrence assurances to the ROK, regional anti-submarine warfare capabilities, and wartime operational control of military forces on the Korean Peninsula. To address its focal concern, the thesis first presents the current status of the DPRK SLBM and SSB programs. The thesis then utilizes these details to estimate DPRK intentions in pursuing these programs. On this basis, the thesis then evaluates recent and prospective ROK responses. Overall, the thesis reaches two conclusions. On the one hand, given U.S. and ROK capacities, the potential threat posed by the DPRK’s aim to deploy nuclear-capable SLBMs will be negligible. However, the DPRK leadership’s overestimation of its SLBM/SSB capabilities could fuel risky provocative behavior eroding regional stability and deepen crisis dangers. Lieutenant, United States Navy Approved for public release. Distribution is unlimited.

In 2010, North Korea launched an artillery bombardment of South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing four, wounding 18, and damaging over 100 buildings. Despite conventional military superiority, the Republic of Korea-United States (ROK-U.S.) alliance failed to deter this significant North Korean low-intensity provocation (LIP). This thesis examines the Yeonpyeong deterrence failure to ask how the ROK-U.S. alliance can deter North Korean LIP in the future. It examines the requirements for conventional deterrence, identifies traits that distinguish conventional and nuclear deterrence, and develops an original matrix of conventional deterrence criteria that can be applied to specific cases. The thesis then utilizes this matrix for a structured case study of the Yeonpyeong bombardment. The thesis finds that most of the criteria for successful conventional deterrence were absent prior to the Yeonpyeong bombardment, indicating multiple reasons for deterrence failure. Among other factors, the alliance ignored intelligence regarding increased North Korean military deployments near the island, and had not demonstrated a likelihood of response in similar incidents in the past. The conclusions provide numerous lessons applying to both future studies of conventional deterrence effectiveness and the policy requirements for the ROK-U.S. alliance to successfully deter LIP by an increasingly dangerous North Korean regime. http://archive.org/details/astudyonfailureo1094551568 Major, Republic of Korea Air Force Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

There can be hostile relations between nations that are divided politically or ideologically, and there are threats in cyberspace as well as physical space. Although every cyber threat, like a physical threat, has countermeasures, this can be hard because of the complexity of cyberspace and the ethics in cyberspace. This study tries to find effective countermeasures for South Korea in cyberspace against North Korea’s continuing cyber attacks in light of the Korean peninsula’s situation, a typical example of divided nations in the world. To find good solutions, South and North Korea’s cyber capabilities are compared in terms of infrastructure, organization, defensive capabilities, offensive capabilities, and vulnerabilities. Characteristics and features of North Korea’s cyber attacks are inferred by analyses of past attacks. Based on these analyses, this study recommends defensive and offensive countermeasures to mitigate these cyber threats and prevent escalation. Each countermeasure is assessed using considerations such as prevention of escalation, efficient use of limited resources, international laws and ethics, and bargaining power in the real world. http://archive.org/details/findingeffective1094547841 Captain, Republic of Korea Air Force Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.

There is a lack of attention to the aftermath of a deployed cyber weapon: There is no mechanism for the assignment of accountability for the restoration of affected infrastructure and remediation of violation of established laws of war after cyberattacks occur. This study analyzes International Humanitarian Law and international treaties as they apply to the cyber post-conflict period and explores current jus post bellum frameworks, which can be used to design a cyber-warfare jus post bellum framework. It also analyzes analogies to traditional warfare in the damage assessment and aid provided during the recovery period of the 1998 Kosovo and the 2003 Iraq Wars. It also discusses the available international cyber organizations. As an example, the study analyzes responses to cyberattacks in a case study involving South Korea and North Korea. Additionally, this study examines the related issues of the effects of deploying a cyber-weapon, the ways to establish acceptable levels of attribution, the challenges of cyber-damage assessments, and the ability to contain and reverse cyberattacks. This thesis proposes a cyber-warfare jus post bellum framework, with emphasis on prevention and cyber weapons control, proposes cyberattack relief-effort actions, and offers a post-cyberattack cost checklist. http://archive.org/details/cyberwarfarejusp1094545169 Captain, United States Army Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.