(NewsSpace.com) – Over the past few years, North Korea has grown increasingly erratic in its behavior. It’s launched several missiles and condemned the United States and South Korea for working together to complete training exercises. Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has made no secret of the hatred he harbors toward both nations. Now, the US and South Korea have signed guidelines in light of the threat.
On Thursday, July 11, Presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk Yeol announced in a joint statement that the two countries had met “to reaffirm the advancements in the US-ROK security cooperation on extended deterrence,” following their declaration last April and the creation of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG). The NCG was created to strengthen communications between the two nations regarding nuclear operations and how to integrate conventional and nuclear weapons in various situations.
During the meeting, the ROK Ministry of National Defense and the US Department of Defense signed the US-ROK Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula. The deterrence plans are a good start, per Du Hyeogn Cha, who works as an analyst at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. However, more details are needed to fill out the plan and both sides will need to conduct more military exercises to test their efficiency and effectiveness. The guidelines are the first of their kind between the US and South Korea, and the US has pledged to step up and defend the Asian country should Kim launch an offensive.
North Korea, as expected, took the news of the guidelines badly and threatened to boost its own nuclear capability in response. Officials even threatened that both nations would pay “an imaginably harsh price” for their cooperation, and claimed the guidelines were a cover for their plans to “step up their preparations for a nuclear war against” the country.
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