The US and South Korea signed joint nuclear deterrence guidelines, weeks after North Korea and Russia struck a defense pact that deepened concerns in the region about the North\u2019s growing nuclear threats. Meeting Thursday on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Washington, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol commended what they called \u201cthe tremendous progress\u201d that their countries\u2019 alliance has made a year after creating a joint Nuclear Consultative Group. Last year, the US and South Korea launched the bilateral consultation body to enhance information-sharing on nuclear and strategic operations.<\/p>\n
The US will retain control of its nuclear weapons, and the body\u2019s establishment was meant to ease South Korean worries about North Korean nuclear threats. The two leaders authorized \u201cthe US-ROK Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula\u201d which was signed by their defense officials earlier Thursday, according to South Korea\u2019s presidential office. ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea\u2019s official name. \u201cThe presidents underscored that the Guidelines document provides a solid foundation for enhancing US-ROK extended deterrence cooperation in an integrated manner,\u201d the joint statement said.<\/p>\n
The first such guidelines agreed between the two countries, they\u2019re part of an effort to flesh out a US commitment to defend the South. Washington has long promised to use all its capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend Seoul if it is attacked. The Biden-Yoon statement said that any nuclear attack by North Korea against South Korea will be met with \u201ca swift, overwhelming and decisive response.\u201d Kim Tae-hyo, a deputy national security director in South Korea, told reporters that the agreement calls for integrating US nuclear assets and South Korean conventional weapons to better respond to North Korean nuclear threats. He said that the two countries will conduct joint military exercises to help implement the deterrence guidelines.<\/p>\n
Details of the South Korean-US nuclear deterrence guidelines, which Seoul called confidential, were not available. But North Korea is still expected to respond angrily, as it has previously accused its rivals of using the consultation group to plot a nuclear attack on the North. North Korea\u2019s developing nuclear arsenal is a major security threat to South Korea, which has no nuclear weapons and largely relies on the US \u201cnuclear umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some experts and politicians in South Korea have openly questioned the credibility of the US commitment, as recent North Korean weapons tests show the country is getting closer to acquiring long-range nuclear missiles capable of reaching the US mainland. Worries about North Korea have further deepened since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June signed a deal requiring each country to provide aid to the other if it is attacked, and vowed to boost other cooperation. Analysts say the accord represents the strongest connection between the two countries since the end of the Cold War.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US and South Korea signed joint nuclear deterrence guidelines, weeks after North Korea and Russia struck a defense pact\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":47859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[14951,14950,976,1523,8249,150,6589,95],"class_list":["post-47858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-relations","tag-joint-defense-pact","tag-joint-nuclear-deterrence-guidelines","tag-nato","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-russia-north-korea-relations","tag-south-korea","tag-threat","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}