Analysis: To tackle the nuclear danger from North Korea, South Korea is stepping up its risky “Kill Chain” measures

• Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, who took office in May, has openly placed more emphasis on the so-called “Kill Chain” system to thwart a nuclear assault from North Korea.
• Kill Chain, which was first created ten years ago as North Korea accelerated the development of its nuclear weapons, called for immediate military action against the North’s missiles and perhaps even its top officials if an impending attack is discovered.
• According to several analysts and former officials, the system is a reasonable but extremely dangerous and possibly unreliable means to try to address North Korea’s nuclear threat.

Some experts claim that South Korea’s approach of preparing for preemptive attacks in the event of a nuclear attack by North Korea could escalate their arms race and increase the likelihood of strategic errors during a confrontation.

Yoon Suk-yeol, the president of South Korea, who took office in May, has openly placed more emphasis on the so-called “Kill Chain” system to thwart a nuclear assault from North Korea.

Kill Chain, which was first created ten years ago as North Korea accelerated the development of its nuclear weapons, called for immediate military action against the North’s missiles and perhaps even its top officials if an impending attack is discovered.

According to several analysts and former officials, the system is a reasonable but extremely dangerous and possibly unreliable means to try to address North Korea’s nuclear threat.

According to Ankit Panda of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the United States, the implied threat made against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is extremely unstable.

“I can understand why threatening to assassinate the leadership of a nuclear-armed state is uniquely terrifying,” he added. “Leadership decapitation is appealing for South Korea.”

The proposals, according to Jeffrey Lewis of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), are “the most likely path to a nuclear conflict on the Korean Peninsula.”

He wrote on Twitter, “This is the *military* option that is most likely to succeed.” But it’s also the option most likely to set off a nuclear war and unpredictable escalation dynamics.

In response to a request for comment on these issues, the South Korean Ministry of Defense remained silent.

Yoon has previously stated that strengthening the system is essential to ensuring that North Korea never really conducts an attack.