Just War and Nuclear Weapons Just War Theory and Its Application to the Korean Nuclear Weapons Issue in Korean Christianity
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Just War and Nuclear Weapons Just War Theory and Its Application to the Korean Nuclear Weapons Issue in Korean Christianity Changwan Son A Thesis Presented to the University of Edinburgh For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2009 1 I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and constitutes the results of my research on the subject Changwan Son October 2009 2 Abstract This thesis is primarily an application of the Christian tradition of Just War to the problems arising from the basing of US nuclear weapons in South Korea and the development of nuclear weapons by the regime in the North. The Christian theology of Just War has developed over the last two thousand years, adapting as first Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, through the break down of any enforceable norms in Europe‘s ‗Dark Ages‘, to the emergence of the concept of the modern nation state at the end of the Thirty Years Wars in 1648. Throughout these shifts, two issues have remained constant, although their relative weight has changed. First that a war can only be described as ‗just‘ if it is being waged for legitimate reasons, jus ad bellum, and that is waged in a proportionate manner that seeks to separate combatants from non-combatants, jus in bello. Both these ideas were severely weakened in the period of warfare that followed on from the American and French Revolutions at the end of the Eighteenth Century. The new ideology of nationalism brought with it the idea of the nation at arms, the armed citizenry, and with this, a further blurring of the always weak distinction between soldiers and the wider population. By 1945, both the secular and Christian tradition lay in ruins, damaged by the total warfare in the twentieth century when anything and anyone who could contribute to the wider war effort became a target. Also, although not the most destructive weapon, this saw the advent of the nuclear bomb. In response, Christian thinkers sought to redefine the concepts of Just War for a nuclear age, with the potential for the use of weapons that could destroy all of humanity. Some saw this as the lesser evil, when faced with the victory of a totalitarian political system, and others argued that proportionality could be maintained if the size of weapons, or their targeting, was such as to minimise wider damage. On the other hand, many theologians argued that by definition they could never be discriminate or proportionate and that their use (or even the implied threat of their use) would always fail the precepts of Jus in Bello. In the modern Korean context, this debate is not abstract, but has real bearing on the practical steps being taken by all the main parties. The acquisition of nuclear weapons by the North (the DPRK) has meant that the desire for Korean re-unification has become entwined with 3 how best to resolve the nuclear issue. At the moment, in the South amongst the Protestant communities (split between the CCK and the NCCK), this debate has become fixed on issues of practical politics. In effect, is it better to negotiate with the North over the nuclear weapons issue and hope that resolving this will then lead to reunification or is it better to aim to overthrow the DPRK (economically, politically or even militarily) and, this, by definition, would resolve the question of their possession of nuclear weapons. At the moment both the NCCK and the CCK have based their policies towards North Korea (the DPRK) on the basis of secular politics not the teachings of the Christian gospel. The NCCK is tending to overlook human rights abuses in the DPRK, and the threat of that regime‘s nuclear arsenal, in their emphasis on the need to overcome the political division of Korea. In turn, the CCK ignores much Christian teaching with its emphasis on seeking the collapse (perhaps by military means) of the DPRK as a precursor to unification. In this, both bodies seem to have forgotten that they are fundamentally Christian confessional bodies, and as such their public statements should be based on the Gospels, not on the practicalities of day to day politics. Neither approach is particularly grounded on either in the Christian message of the gospels or the Just War tradition. Thus this thesis does not just seek to explore and explain the current situation in Korea using the concepts of Just War, it also seeks to provide a basis on which the Protestant community can resolve their current impasse. This means the thesis is grounded on the Christian concept of political theology, in particular in so far as this approach ‗offers alternatives to better comprehend the different postures and approaches towards a solution‘. In the case of the situation in Korea, this means there is no military solution to the problem of unification. Nor can a solution be found in ignoring the human rights abuses in the DPRK. The answer lies in stressing three aspects that remain fundamental to any Christian identity in Korea – of a unified Korean koinoina, that any resort to force must meet the conditions of the Christian Just War tradition, and that, as faith groups, any response must stem from the Gospels. 4 Table of Contents Declaration 2 Abstract 3 Table of Contents 5 Part I: Introduction and Research Methodology Introduction 10 Reason and Purpose of the Thesis 12 Research Hypotheses 13 Development of the Thesis 14 Summary 16 Chapter 1: Research Methodology 1. Introduction 17 2. Research Issues 18 2.1. Historiography 21 2.2. Secular Models of History 22 2.3. Christian Methods of Interpretation 24 3. Outline of the Korean Community: Development of the Protestant Christian Community in Korea 27 3.1. Catholicism in Korea 29 3.2. The Development of the Protestant Community 30 3.3. Construction of a Korean Protestant Identity 31 3.4. Resistance to Foreign Domination and the growth of Protestantism 32 3.5. Implications for Korean Protestantism 35 4. Implications 36 5 Part II: Just War Theory: Establishing a Moral Framework Chapter 2: The Just War Tradition in the Pre-Modern Era 1. Initial Considerations 39 2. Just War Theology: Pagan, Early Christian and Late Roman Developments 41 2.1. Classical Antecedents 43 2.2. Biblical Sources 45 2.2.1. Old Testament 46 2.2.2. New Testament 49 2.3. Early Christianity and Military Warfare 51 2.4. Christianity as State Religion 56 2.4.1. Ambrose of Milan 57 2.4.2. Saint Augustine and Just War 59 3. Europe’s Dark Age and the recovery of the Just War Tradition 61 3.1. The Re-introduction of the Concept of Just War 61 3.2. Gratian’s Decretum: First Effort at Codifying Acceptable Behaviour In War 64 3.3. The Council of Constance: Efforts to Codify Just War 66 4. The ‘Natural Law’ understanding of Just War 69 4.1. The Spanish Neo-scholastics 70 4.2. Hugo Grotius: Just War and Natural Law 72 5. Conclusion 73 Chapter 3: Just War Theory in the Nuclear Age 1. Preliminary Analysis 76 2. The Changing Nature of War in the Modern Period 78 2.1. Nationalism, Ideology and Just War 79 2.2. The Implications of Weapons’ Innovations 82 3. Just War Theology in the Post-World War II Era 86 3.1. The Morality of Deterrence 89 3.2. Discrimination and Proportion in the Application of Force 91 3.3. The Moral Implication of Nuclear Weapons 95 4. Concluding Thoughts 100 6 Part III: Modern Day Korea, Unification, Nuclear Weapons and the Protestant Response Chapter 4: Development of the Protestant Community in South Korea from the 1940s: Debates about National Unity and Missio Dei 1. Context 104 2. The presence of Nuclear Weapons in South Korea 104 2.1. Considering South Korean Nuclear Initiatives in Terms of Just War Theory 110 2.2. Christian Perspectives 112 3. Korean Church’s Response: The NCCK 114 3.1. The Development of the NCCK’s Political Position in the 1950s 114 3.2. The NCCK Shifts its Public Orientation: The Attractions of Missio Dei 117 3.3. The NCCK and its Issue of National Unity in the Post-Park Years 122 4. Korean Church’s Response: The CCK 124 4.1. The CCK Posture: Theological Orientation 125 4.1.1. The CCK and the Lausanne Covenant 129 4.1.2. The CCK’s Perspective of Church Unity in the Light of Dogma 131 5. The Inter-linkage between Nuclear Weapons and National Unification 133 5.1. Linking National Unification with Good Governance in all Korea 134 5.2. The NCCK’s response to Nuclear Weapons and Just War Theology 137 5.3. The CCK and the Nuclear Weapons Issue in the Korean Peninsula 142 6. Highlights of the Theological Division between the CCK and the NCCK 144 7. Summary 146 Chapter 5: North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Development Efforts and South Korean Christian Response 1. Context 148 2. The Birth of the Communist Regime 149 3. The Nature of North Korea’s Government under Kim Il-sung 150 3.1. The Implementation of Juche Philosophy 151 3.2. Juche as Political Messianism 152 7 4. North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Procurement Programmes 154 4.1. Historical Overview (1950-2006) 154 4.2. Considerations of North Korean Objectives in Pursuing Nuclear Weapons 159 4.3. External Influences on the DPRK, an analogy with the Soviet Union 161 5. Towards a Nuclear-free Korea: Overview of Factors at Work 165 5.1. Evaluation of the NCCK Approach 167 5.2.