SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea threatened Saturday to increase its nuclear warfighting capabilities and make the U.S. and South Korea pay “an unimaginably harsh price” by attacking their rivals’ new weapons. defense guidelines which he says reveals an intention to invade the North.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol authorized the signing of joint nuclear deterrence guidelines as part of efforts to improve their capabilities to deal with North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. The guidelines were adopted a year after the two countries established a consultation body to strengthen information sharing on nuclear operations and discuss how to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons in contingencies.
In a statement carried by state media, North Korea’s Defense Ministry said the U.S.-South Korea directives betrayed “its sinister intention to intensify preparations for a nuclear war against” North Korea.
The statement said its enemies’ growing nuclear threats urgently require North Korea to further improve its nuclear deterrence readiness and add “unspecified important elements to the deterrence composition.” He stated that the US and South Korea “will pay an unimaginably harsh price” if they fail to stop the provocative acts.
Details of the U.S.-South Korea guidelines were not available, but experts say they are largely about how the two countries would integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons to respond to various potential contingencies caused by attacks. and North Korean provocations. Experts say the US and South Korea are expected to map out detailed concepts and operation plans based on the guidelines and review them through bilateral military exercises.
The guidelines are the first of their kind among the allies. The US has repeatedly promised to use all of its military capabilities to protect South Korea if it is attacked by North Korea, but many South Korea experts believe the US has no plans for how it would implement its extended deterrence on its ally. South Korea does not have nuclear weapons.
North Korea argued that it was forced to seek nuclear weapons to deal with US-led nuclear threats. U.S. and South Korean officials have firmly stated that they have no intention of attacking North Korea.
Concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program have grown in recent years as the North has taken a series of provocative actions. missile tests and openly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively in potential conflicts with its adversaries.
