SEOUL (Dispatches) -- Seoul and Washington are discussing joint planning and exercises involving U.S. nuclear assets to counter what they view as growing threats from North, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has said.
In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper published Monday, Yoon said the United States’ existing “nuclear umbrella” and “extended deterrence” were no longer enough to reassure South Koreans.
“The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but the planning, information sharing, exercises and training must be done jointly by South Korea and the United States,” Yoon said, adding that the U.S. was “quite positive” about the idea.
North Korea condemns the joint drills as a rehearsal for invasion and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul.
In a show of force in November, two B-1B stealth bomber aircraft flew over the peninsula for the first time since 2017 as part of a major joint exercise which saw some 240 aircraft participating along with thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops.
The U.S. muscle-flexing in the Korean Peninsula, however, has proved no working with North Korea.
Yoon’s comments came a day after the North’s state media reported that leader Kim Jong Un had called for an “exponential” increase in his country’s nuclear arsenal and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to counter what it termed U.S. and South Korean hostility.
In 2022, the North conducted sanctions-busting weapons tests nearly every month, including firing its most advanced ICBM ever.
It capped the record-breaking year of launches by firing three short range ballistic missiles early Saturday, and conducting another rare early morning launch on Sunday.
Under the hawkish Yoon, South Korea has beefed up joint military drills with the United States, which had been scaled back during the pandemic or paused for a bout of ill-fated diplomacy with the North under his predecessor.
Since talks collapsed in 2019, Kim has doubled down on his banned weapons programmes, and Seoul and Washington have warned for months that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.