PremiumWhite House said on Tuesday that Washington and Seoul are planning an ‘effective coordinated’ response in the event that North Korea uses nuclear weapons
Washington and Seoul are planning an "effective coordinated" response if North Korea uses nuclear weapons, the White House said on Tuesday.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and US President Joe Biden have "tasked their teams to plan for an effective coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea," a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House said.
Earlier, Yoon Suk Yeol said in a newspaper interview published on Monday said that the two countries were pushing for a joint planning and training involving U.S. nuclear assets and that the United States responded positively about the idea.
South Korea has no nuclear weapons and is under the protection of a U.S. “nuclear umbrella," which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But some experts question the effectiveness of such a security commitment, saying the decision to use U.S. nuclear weapons lies with the U.S. president.
After their annual meeting in November, the defense chiefs of the United States and South Korea issued a joint statement reaffirming the U.S. commitment to providing extended deterrence to South Korea and deploying U.S. strategic assets in a timely and coordinated manner as necessary and identify new steps to reinforce deterrence against North Korean threats. The statement also carried their agreement to bolster the alliance’s information-sharing, joint planning and execution.