Barely two weeks into 2024, tensions on the Korean Peninsula are rapidly escalating, as IFIMES Institute was periodically writing. On one hand, North Korea has declared it will no longer pursue unification as long as Seoul sticks to a strategy centered around the "collapse of the DPRK's regime," "unification by absorption," and "unification under liberal democracy." On the other hand, South Korea announced plans to further strengthen the US-ROK extended deterrence system aimed at the North, calling for "peace through strength....
