Seoul and Washington are discussing joint exercises involving US nuclear assets to counter growing threats from nuclear-armed North Korea, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has reported.
In an interview with the
Chosun Ilbo
newspaper , published on Monday, Yoon Suk-yeol admits that the American “
nuclear umbrella
” and its “
extended deterrence
” are no longer enough to reassure the South Koreans.
"
Nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but preparation, information sharing, exercises and training must be done jointly by South Korea and the United States
," the president said, adding that Washington welcomed this idea "
rather positively
".
“Exponential increase”
These remarks are published the day after the call of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the “
exponential increase
” of the nuclear arsenal of his country, according to the official agency KCNA.
Kim also announced that the North would develop new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to deal with what he called hostility from the United States and South Korea.
In 2022, the North conducted almost monthly weapons testing, including the firing of its most advanced ICBM.
The year 2022 has seen a record number of missile launches by Pyongyang.
Three short-range ballistic missiles were fired by North Korea again on Saturday, and another on Sunday at dawn.
Under President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea has stepped up joint military exercises with the United States, which had been scaled back during the pandemic or halted under his predecessor amid ultimately unsuccessful diplomatic talks with the North.
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Since the collapse of inter-Korean negotiations in 2019, Kim has redoubled his efforts to expand his banned weapons programs.
Seoul and Washington lend Pyongyang the intention of carrying out a new nuclear test soon, which would be the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.