Labour’s first 100 days in power have been nothing short of a disaster. Whether the beneath contemptible decision to shelve the Higher Education Freedom of Speech Act, or the disgrace that was the handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the stage has already been set for five long years for domestic and foreign policy blunders. David Lammy’s first few months as Foreign Secretary have faired little better.
For Lammy, risible speeches to the United Nations have been combined with absurd claims from his boss, calling for the expansion of the institution’s sclerotic Security Council. Quantity does not equal quality. Lammy’s laissez-faire approach has also extended to his apathy towards strengthening the UK’s so-called tilt to the Indo-Pacific, of which one vital component is our relations with South Korea. During his visit to China and South Korea this week, amongst other East Asian states, the Foreign Secretary stated he had ‘raised’ many issues, from climate change to his concern about Russia’s burgeoning alliance with North Korea. But ‘raising’ issues isn’t enough – particularly at a time when the security of the UK’s East Asian partners has only become more precarious.
Ukraine has become directly intertwined with South Korea’s interests
In stark contrast to this time last year, North Korea is now no longer a mere peripheral actor in the Ukraine war. A total of approximately 12,000 North Korea troops are reported to shortly be deployed to Russia, both as cannon fodder and to provide technical, weapons-related assistance in assisting Putin’s fight, fuelled by North Korean missiles and artillery.
What started as a European war is now no longer limited to the continent. Rather, the active involvement of the hermit kingdom – unexpected two years ago, when the first Russian tanks entered Ukraine – shows how the relationship between the two states has been upgraded. By helping its Cold War patron, Pyongyang hopes to gain advanced military technology, not least satellites, in return. But it also wants to show the West that it is not just North Korea that opposes the US and its allies, but a clear united axis.
Lammy is right to be concerned about the alliance between North Korea and Russia, but these anxieties must be reflected in action. With North Korean weapons and soldiers now said to be heavily involved in the war, Ukraine has become directly intertwined with South Korea’s interests. It is only right that South Korea seriously considers, once again, the question of sending armed assistance directly to Ukraine, despite two years of outlining its reluctance to do so. Here, the United Kingdom should work with its long-time friend. South Korea is not just an economic partner for Britain, but a vital security partner, too.
The South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol made a state visit to London in November last year. The landmark occasion was not merely ceremonial, but a real reflection of just how strong relations between London and Seoul have become since the Korean War, when Britain aided South Korea’s war effort.
Lammy’s proposal yesterday of high-level foreign and defence ministerial dialogue between Britain and South Korea sounds good on paper but must be evidenced in concrete realities. With South Korea’s interests now directly at stake, will the United Kingdom urge Seoul to send weapons or military personnel in Zelensky’s direction? Will our Royal Marines continue to participate in military exercises involving the United States, Japan, and South Korea, as a signal both of resolve towards North Korea and our commitment to South Korea?
In this so-called Cold War 2.0, it’s not just North Korea and Russia which are threatening the liberal international order. In contrast to the Cold War of the previous century, now there is heightened strategic competition between China and the United States. The ‘epoch-defining challenge’ posed by China, as last year’s British integrated review ‘refresh’ highlighted, is multifaceted and difficult to combat, not least given China’s muted response to the blossoming security cooperation between North Korea and Russia.
Beijing’s cautious ambiguity only underscores its quandary. It remains simultaneously disquiet – but not upset – at Pyongyang’s pivot to Moscow. But it is arguably even more unhappy at the strengthening of US alliances with South Korea, Japan, and Australia, in response.
One area in which China remains much less ambiguous in articulating its position relates to its notorious Confucius Institutes. Funding for these alleged hubs of learning – many of which feature in academic institutions on our shores– may have been pulled by the Sunak government, but the institutes themselves continue to remain open. Many are still hosted by universities up and down the country.
The oft-touted line by the Chinese Communist party is that the Confucius Institutes merely ‘teach Chinese language and culture’. In reality, such teaching serves as a not-so-tactical front for more sinister manipulation of just what is taught at their host universities. At a time when universities nationwide, including at Oxford and Cambridge, face an ever-worsening freedom of speech crisis from actors within their hallowed halls, universities could do without this additional ideological concern. Here, much like in the domain of security, Lammy should not bow to China.
Only yesterday, Kim Yo Jong, the acerbic younger sister of Kim Jong Un, decried, in her trademark vitriolic fashion, how both South Korea and Ukraine were being run by ‘lunatic regimes’. If these ‘bad dogs bred by the US’ were to provoke North Korea, she said, a ‘horrible situation’ would emerge. Now, more so than ever, the West needs to stand up for the rules-based international order, and uphold the pillars of freedom, peace, and prosperity – and this includes the United Kingdom.
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