A Modern Reinterpretation of the U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty Based on the 2024 U.S.-ROK Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting Joint Statement

Minister of National Defense Kim Yong-hyun (from left), Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yeol, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are taking a commemorative photo at the '' held in Washington, DC, USA on the 31st (local time). 2024.11.1 (Korean time)

The U.S.-ROK Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting ("2+2"), held on October 31, 2024, in Washington, represented a transformative moment in reinterpreting and bolstering the U.S.-ROK Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) to meet contemporary security challenges. The joint statement affirmed the evolution of the U.S.-ROK Alliance into a "global comprehensive strategic alliance," extending its scope beyond the Korean Peninsula to encompass Indo-Pacific and global security. A key focus was enhancing cooperation to counter China’s Unrestricted Warfare strategy, with a particularly noteworthy agreement to consider cyberattacks as potential armed attacks under the MDT. This provision opens the possibility of U.S. military intervention if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or North Korea were to hack South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC) servers to manipulate elections. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the joint statement, offering a modern reinterpretation of the MDT, exploring the background of China’s Unrestricted Warfare, and detailing U.S.-ROK strategies, with a special emphasis on cyber threats.

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