Hwee‐rhak Park

Biographic Data

ID4449428
NAMEHwee‐rhak Park
GIVEN NAMESHwee‐rhak
FAMILY NAMEPark
SIGNATUREPARK H R
AFFILIATIONSKookmin University
ORCID0000-0002-9215-946X
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS17
TOTAL CITATIONS4
AUTHOR COUNT17
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2019
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX2

  • South Korean Progressive Presidents’ Misperception, Confirmation Bias, and Groupthink on North Korea’s Nuclear Armament

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of Asian Security and…2026

    This article analyses the misperceptions, confirmation bias and groupthink exhibited by South Korea’s progressive presidents regarding North Korea’s nuclear armament and the prospects for denuclearisation. Historically, progressive administrations have characterised North Korea’s nuclear programme as fundamentally defensive—intended for regime survival—and as a negotiable issue that could be resolved through voluntary disarmament. These perceptio…

  • A Non-nuclear US Ally’s Nuclear Option

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of Asian Security and…2025

    North Korea’s nuclear armament has placed South Korea in a dilemma, as it can neither rely entirely on the United States’ nuclear extended deterrence (NED) nor pursue its own nuclear weapons development (the nuclear option). The reliability of the US NED has diminished, given North Korea’s ability to deploy intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking the US mainland. However, pursuing the nuclear option is fraught with difficulties du…

  • Autonomy or Security? The Case of the US-South Korea Alliance Under Trump’s First Presidency

    Open AccessWooyun Jo, Hwee‐rhak Park et al.ARTICLEEast Asia2025Cited by: 2References: 13

    This article explains why the United States–South Korea (US–ROK) alliance endured during Donald Trump’s first presidency, despite unprecedented abandonment threats and widespread predictions of rupture. Drawing on the autonomy-security trade-off (AST) model, it argues that Trump’s coercive bargaining re-activated the alliance’s foundational asymmetry by compelling Seoul to yield partial autonomy across three domains: increased cost-sharing, defer…

  • North Korea’s nuclear strategy

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEComparative Strategy2025

  • Lessons from Russia's Nuclear Forward‐Deployment to Belarus for the USA and South Korea

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEPacific Focus2025References: 2

    Following Belarus's request, Russia deployed its nuclear weapons to Belarus within one or two years, whereas the USA has not even engaged in discussions on a similar option for South Korea, which has faced an existential nuclear threat from North Korea. This article seeks to extract key insights from Belarus's experience and propose corresponding policy implications for the US–South Korea alliance. In particular, the USA must soberly assess wheth…

  • What Made South Korea–Japan Security Cooperation Retreat During the Moon Jae-in Administration

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of Asian Security and…2024

    This article elucidates the reasons behind South Korea’s diminished security cooperation with Japan during the Moon Jae-in administration (2017–2022). The author discovered that President Moon halted ongoing security cooperation activities initiated by his predecessor, even though the North Korean nuclear threat became exponential. In particular, this article argues that not the national-level factors, such as South Koreans’ negative perception o…

  • A non-nuclear US ally’s nuclear preparedness dilemma

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEDefence Studies2024References: 6

    This article aims to encourage discussion on the dilemma of a non-nuclear US ally's nuclear preparedness through the case of South Korea. Despite the strong demands of its own nuclear armament by the people and North Korea's continuous and aggressive nuclear buildups, South Korea has been focusing on strengthening only its conventional options, such as the Kill Chain (preemptive strikes), KAMD (missile defence), and KMPR (conventional retaliation…

  • Japan’s potential assistance in South Korea’s nuclear deterrence and defense

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEComparative Strategy2024

    As North Korea emphasized its "second mission," the reunification of the two Koreas, with its nuclear weapons, South Korea has been mobilizing all potential resources to deter North Korea's attempt. Indeed, it rapidly improved its relations with Japan as well as strengthened the U.S. extended deterrence through the "Washington Declaration" in early 2023. The United States, South Korea, and Japan even initiated their trilateral summit meeting to d…

  • Compellence and batna for the Denuclearization of North Korea

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEInternational Negotiation2023References: 2

    This article analyzes the denuclearization negotiations with North Korea and recommends options to compel North Korea to denuclearize, focusing on the best alternative to a negotiated agreement ( batna ) concept. President Trump’s recent denuclearization summit meetings with North Korea failed because he did not employ a batna in his negotiations. A few candidates for the batna are compared and evaluated using criteria of effectiveness and feasib…

  • Searching for on-site nuclear balance against North Korea

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEComparative Strategy2023

    As North Korea succeeds in developing hydrogen bombs, ICBMs, and SLBMs capable of destroying U.S. cities, the current U.S. extended deterrence may not work. The United States must empower South Korea with a nuclear option to exercise its right of self-defense by prescribing an on-site nuclear balance. This article presents and compares two options for the United States: (1) South Korea’s nuclear armament and (2) another nuclear sharing system in …

  • The Necessity to Discuss ‘Deterrence Failure’ Regarding North Korea’s Nuclear Threat

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEInternational Studies2023References: 8

    This article introduces the ‘deterrence failure’ concept and applies it to North Korea’s nuclear threat situation. For this purpose, it selects five factors, including retaliation posture; credibility of retaliation; probability of the challenger’s success; challenger’s irrational leader; and situational desperateness, to evaluate the US–South Korea nuclear deterrence posture against North Korea. Except for the retaliation posture, most factors a…

  • An Investigation into North Korea’s ‘Real’ Nuclear Strategy

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of Asian Security and…2022

    The purpose of this article is to ascertain North Korea’s ‘real’ nuclear strategy. This article uses the ‘Strategy = Ends + Ways + Means’ construct for the ascertainment, and it makes comparisons to Pakistan’s nuclear strategy. This article found that North Korea’s goal of its nuclear armament was as ideological and aggressive as Pakistan’s, and that its nuclear strategy is closer to the ‘minimal deterrence strategy’ than Pakistan’s. North Korea …

  • Investigating nuclear-armed North Korea's “strategic” challenge and options for the United States and South Korea

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEInternational Area Studies Review2022References: 4

    This study analyzes the challenge of North Korea, which has managed to have a strategic level of nuclear weapons and suggests a few options for the United States and South Korea to address this challenge. For this purpose, it examines the theoretical backgrounds of the extended deterrence and minimal deterrence strategies, as well as the contrasting perceptions of North Korea's nuclear armament. Then, it analyzes the competition between U.S. exte…

  • North Korea’s nuclear armament strategy and deception

    Hwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEDefence Studies2022References: 2

    This article analyzes North Korea’s nuclear armament strategy. For this purpose, it applies Vipin Narang’s theory to North Korea and analyzes North Korea’s efforts to develop and strengthen its nuclear weapons on a strategic level. This study argues that North Korea’s deception operations were crucial to the ultimate success of its “strategic” nuclear buildup. This article found that North Korea initially employed a “hiding strategy,” but after i…

  • An Analysis on the Influence of the U.S. President Trump to the South Korea-U.S. Alliance

    Hwee‐rhak Park, Hwee-rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of international area…2021

    본 논문은 트럼프 행정부 기간에 한미동맹이 북핵 위협이 심각해진 정도만큼 강화되지 못했다는 문제의식을 배경으로, 트럼프 대통령이라는 개인적 요소가 그에 어느 정도 영향을 끼쳤는지를 분석해보기 위한 목적으로 작성되었다. 이를 위하여 강대국과 약소국 관계에 관한 이론인 ‘자율성-안보 교환’ 모델에 근거하여 한미동맹의 성격을 설명하였고, 트럼프 행정부 시대 한미관계를 정리하여 제시한 다음에, 국제정치의 수준 즉 국제적 수준, 국가 수준, 개인 수준에서 영향의 정도를 평가하였다. 분석 결과, 트럼프 행정부 기간 동안 한미동맹은 트럼프 대통령이라는 개인적 요소가 지나치게 비중있게 작용하여 제대로 강화되지 못한 것으로 평가되었다. 트럼프 대통령은 ‘자율성-안보 교환’이라는 거래의 시각으로 한미동맹을 인식함으로써 한국의 전략적 가치를 인정하지 않았고, 한국과 한국의 대통령을 존중하지 않았다. 특히 한국에게 …

  • The Impact of Changes of the US Defense Strategy to South Korea

    Hwee‐rhak Park, Hwee-rhak ParkARTICLEJournal of international area…2020

    본 논문은 미국의 새로운 국방전략 변화, 즉 러시아와 중국을 비롯한 강대국 군대와의 대규모 전쟁 대비의 방향을 살펴보고, 이것이 한국군에 미치는 함의를 도출하기 위하여 작성하였다. 이를 위하여 이를 위하여 국방기획 상에서 미래전 수행개념이 차지하는 위상을 설명한 후, 최근 발표된 미국 국가전략 변화를 설명하고, 미군이 미래전 수행개념으로 논의하고 있는 ‘다(多)도매인 작전(MDO)’의 내용을 정리하여 소개하면서 그의 핵심내용을 분석하였고, 한국군에 대한 함의를 도출하였다. 미군의 MDO는 명칭으로는 지상, 공중, 해상, 그리고 우주와 사이버공간에 걸친 모든 능력을 결합한다는 개념이다. 그러나 실제 내용에서 강조하고 있는 바는 러시아와 중국이라는 군사경쟁국과의 전쟁에서 대규모 지상군을 투입하는 정규전에서 승리하는 것이다. 당연히 이러한 변화는 한미동맹과 한미연합방위태세를 국방의 근간으로 하는 한국…

  • The South Korea–US Alliance under the North Korean Nuclear Threat

    Open AccessHwee‐rhak ParkARTICLEPacific Focus2019Cited by: 2References: 6

    This paper aims to examine the US–South Korea alliance from the perspective of the “Autonomy–Security Trade‐off” (AST) model, which was introduced by Michael F. Altfeld in the 1980s. This model could be a useful tool to ascertain the minimum conditions for the implementation of the US nuclear umbrella, which is a life‐and‐death issue for South Korea (ROK) given the serious North Korean nuclear threat. For this purpose, this paper introduces the k…