Invited alongside Vladimir Putin to the Victory Day parade in Beijing in early September 2025, Kim Jung-un is strengthening his position as regional leader through increased military cooperation with China and Russia and a nuclear program that is gaining credibility. Although no new tests have been conducted since 2017, ballistic missile launches, with increasing range, are becoming more frequent, and the doctrine is evolving towards greater aggression.

In the South, relations between Seoul and Washington are strained due to Donald Trump's unstable foreign policy. Although South Korea knows it is indispensable to the United States in its competition with China, the coordination mechanisms put in place under the Biden administration, such as the Washington Declaration, are being put to the test. As a result, political rhetoric in favor of a national nuclear program is gaining popularity.

How can we understand these nuclear dynamics on the Korean peninsula? And how might they evolve in an increasingly tense strategic environment?
 

Speaker:
Bee Yun Jo, researcher at the Sejong Institute and non-resident researcher at the Atlantic Council

Moderator:
Héloïse Fayet, researcher and head of the Deterrence and Proliferation program at Ifri