The alliance with the United States has allowed South Korea to build a strong democracy with citizens confident Washington would protect them if North Korea ever acted on its dream of unifying the peninsula under its own rule.
Given the context of the United States and the shitshow of our internal politics over much of the last decade, it should be getting pretty clear that half of our political establishment doesn’t really give a shit about treaty obligations and defense commitments, because reactionary isolationist extremists (who are often also Christian fundamentalists) are calling the shots in the GOP.
Trump openly and repeatedly pushed the idea of leaving NATO, as well as abrogating various other defense treaties -> going forward, defensive treaties and agreements the US enters into are going to be somewhat less watertight, because there exists a real possibility that another psycho will get elected to the presidency and simply decide to ignore those obligations, regardless of national or international legality.
The complete and abject failure of the Budapest Memorandum - and specifically, the abrogation of defensive agreements outlined there by all western signatories, and the blatant violation of Ukraine’s territory and sovereignty by Russia, followed by Russia’s constant nuclear saber-rattling - has fully destroyed the nuclear non-proliferation movement. If Ukraine had held onto even a dozen or two warheads, Russia would not have invaded. Nuclear weapons are the final word in guaranteeing a country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, full stop.
Which is a very long way of saying that given the current geopolitical context, South Korea embarking on a quiet (until they succeed) nuclear program is honestly a pretty shrewd geopolitical move - especially if they end up using that to form the core of some sort of regional defensive alliance that could coordinate with - but does not specifically include as a signatory, nor fully rely on - the United States.
Given the context of the United States and the shitshow of our internal politics over much of the last decade, it should be getting pretty clear that half of our political establishment doesn’t really give a shit about treaty obligations and defense commitments, because reactionary isolationist extremists (who are often also Christian fundamentalists) are calling the shots in the GOP.
Which is a very long way of saying that given the current geopolitical context, South Korea embarking on a quiet (until they succeed) nuclear program is honestly a pretty shrewd geopolitical move - especially if they end up using that to form the core of some sort of regional defensive alliance that could coordinate with - but does not specifically include as a signatory, nor fully rely on - the United States.