The United States and South Korea decided on Wednesday to buttress joint deterrence against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.
“Our mutual defense treaty is ironclad and that includes our commitment to extended deterrence and that includes the nuclear threat and the nuclear deterrent,” US President Joe Biden said in a press joint conference with visiting South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol.
“They’re particularly important in the face of DPRK’s increased threats and the blatant violation of US sanctions,” he pointed out.
The US leader, however, affirmed that the US and the Republic of Korea continue to seek serious and substantial diplomatic breakthroughs with the DPRK to bolster stability on the peninsula, reduce the threat of proliferation.
“Republic of Korea and the United States are working together, including through our trilateral cooperation with Japan to ensure the future of the Indo-Pacific is free, is open, prosperous, and secure,” he said.
For his part, President Yoon said the two leaders have decided to significantly strengthen extended deterrence of the two countries against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats “So that we can achieve peace through the superiority of overwhelming forces and not a false peace based on the goodwill of the other side,” he argued.
He unveiled that the US and South Korea will share information on nuclear and strategic weapon operations plans in response to North Korea’s provocations and have regular consultations on ways to plan and execute joint operations that combine Korea’s state of the art conventional forces with US’s nuclear capabilities.
“The results of which will be reported to the leaders of our two countries on a regular basis. In addition, our two countries have agreed to further advance tabletop exercises against a potential nuclear crisis, “In addition, deployment of the United States strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula will be made constantly and routinely,” he concluded.
Source: Kuwait News Agency