Security

The state and activities of safeguarding the survival and core values of the state and society from multidimensional threats, including military, economic, cyber, and health threats.

Security

Overview

Security (安保, security) refers to the condition in which individuals, societies, states, and the international system safeguard their survival and core values from various risks such as military threats, economic vulnerabilities, social unrest, and natural disasters, or to activities to secure this. During the Cold War, the concept of national security centered on military power was dominant, but since the end of the Cold War, its scope has greatly expanded to include economic, environmental, health, cyber, and human security. Today, security is understood as a complex concept in which military and non-military, state and non-state actors, and domestic and international dimensions are intertwined.

Main Content

Evolution of the Concept

  • Traditional security: The core is a state's territorial integrity and sovereignty, and deterrence of military aggression. Since the Westphalian system, the state has established itself as the main subject of security.
  • Expanded security: The Copenhagen School (Barry Buzan et al.) divides security into five sectors—military, political, economic, societal, and environmental—and focuses on the social construction of threats.
  • Human security: A concept presented in the 1994 UNDP Human Development Report, encompassing seven elements including food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security. It views the individual, not the state, as the ultimate beneficiary of security.

Major Types of Security

1. Military security: Key means include deterrence, alliances, defense spending, nuclear weapons, and missile defense systems.

2. Economic security: Addresses supply chain stability, securing energy and resources, protecting advanced technologies, and responding to economic weaponization.

3. Cybersecurity: Ransomware, state-sponsored hacking, critical infrastructure protection, and data sovereignty are major agendas.

4. Health security: Includes pandemic response, securing vaccines and medical supplies, and biosecurity.

5. Climate and environmental security: The view that climate change is a conflict multiplier is spreading.

6. Food and energy security: The ability to stably procure grains and energy is regarded as part of national security.

Institutions and Mechanisms of Security

  • Collective security: A system of joint response to acts of aggression under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
  • Collective defense: Stipulates mutual defense obligations among specific allies, as in NATO Article 5 and the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty.
  • Alliances and partnerships: Representative means include extended deterrence, nuclear sharing, defense cost sharing, and combined exercises.
  • Deterrence theory: Nuclear deterrence, second-strike capability, and the logic of mutually assured destruction (MAD) have formed the basis of strategic thinking since the Cold War.
  • Middle power diplomacy: Sometimes plays a balancing role through ASEAN, multilateral security dialogue bodies, etc.

South Korea's Security Environment

South Korea is directly exposed to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats under the armistice regime. Extended deterrence centered on the ROK-U.S. alliance, ROK-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, the stationing of U.S. Forces Korea, and the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) on defense cost sharing are key pillars of security. At the same time, the transfer of wartime operational control, defense reform, and expansion of defense exports (K9 self-propelled howitzers, K2 tanks, FA-50, Cheongung-II, etc.) have emerged as major tasks.

Recent Trends

  • Intensifying U.S.-China strategic competition: Indo-Pacific strategies, technology hegemony competition, and Taiwan Strait tensions are reshaping the regional security order.
  • Rise of economic security: The restructuring of semiconductor, battery, and rare earth supply chains, the U.S. IRA and CHIPS Act, and advanced technology export controls have moved to the center of security policy.
  • Prolonged war in Ukraine: European rearmament and NATO expansion (accession of Finland and Sweden) have proceeded, and North Korea-Russia military cooperation has emerged as a new variable.
  • Advancement of North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities: The development of reconnaissance satellites, solid-fuel missiles, and multiple warhead capabilities is increasing security uncertainty on the Korean Peninsula.
  • Cyber and AI security: The military use of AI, information warfare using deepfakes, and threats to cryptographic systems from quantum computing have emerged as new security agendas.
  • South Korea's response: Since the Camp David summit, systematization of ROK-U.S.-Japan cooperation, Defense Innovation 4.0, a defense AI strategy, and diversification of defense exports have been pursued.

Related Topics

  • [[International Politics]]
  • [[ROK-U.S. Alliance]]
  • [[Cybersecurity]]
  • [[Economic Security]]
  • [[North Korean Nuclear Issue]]
  • [[NATO]]