South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday that Seoul and Washington are discussing joint planning and exercises involving U.S. nuclear assets to counter growing threats from North Korea, after U.S. President Joe Biden said such There will be no joint exercises.
The statement came after Biden said the US was not negotiating. Joint nuclear exercises with South Korea, apparently contradicting comments made by Seoul President Yoon Seok-yul earlier this week.
The two security allies are discussing “information sharing, joint planning and joint implementation of plans to respond to operations of US nuclear assets.” North Korea’s nuclear weapons“, Yoon’s office said in a statement.
In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper published Monday, Yoon said the US’s current “nuclear umbrella” and “extended deterrence” are no longer enough to reassure South Koreans.
“Nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but planning, information sharing, exercises and training should be done jointly by South Korea and the United States,” Yun said, adding that the United States was “quite positive” about the idea. .
Hours after that interview was published, Biden gave an emphatic “no” to a question about whether the two sides were considering joint nuclear exercises.
Yun’s office acknowledged Biden’s response but said the US president “was left with no option but to answer ‘no’ when asked directly without context”.
“Joint nuclear drills is a term used only by nuclear powers,” said Kim Yoon-hye, a spokesman for South Korea’s presidential office.
The back-and-forth comes after the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, called for a “rapid” increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to counter hostilities between the United States and South Korea. .
In 2022, the North conducted sanctions-violating weapons tests nearly every month, including the launch of its most advanced ICBM ever.
Under Hakse Yoon, South Korea has ramped up joint military exercises with the United States, which were scaled back during the pandemic or put on hold for ill-fated diplomacy with the North under his predecessor.