The mood around Unification Village, just south of the inter-Korean border, has grown tense the past two years as North Korea ramps up its ballistic missile tests. Most recently, North Korean drones even infiltrated the border. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s war in Ukraine. “It is time we went nuclear,” said Lee Wan-bae, who has lived for 50 years in the village, just three miles south of the Military Demarcation Line that marks the official border between the two Koreas. For decades, Lee has had a front-row view of the fluctuating border tensions amid failed efforts to disarm North Korea. “It increasingly looks like matching the nuclear threat from North Korea is the solution that will bring long-desired stability to our village life,” Lee said. With North Korea threatening to strike the South with nuclear weapons and no sign of a return to denuclearization talks, South Koreans are increasingly debating whether they can still trust the United States to protect them in case of war on the peninsula. The shifting geopolitical landscape around South Korea in the past year — an unprecedented number of missile launches from North Korea, Russia’s nuclear saber-rattling and growing fears that China will invade Taiwan — has prompted South Koreans to take a sober look at their security dependence on the United States.

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