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US and South Korea unveil plan to counter North Korea with ‘strategic assets’ travelling to peninsula
- Bilateral ‘Washington Declaration’ follows White House meeting between Joe Biden and Yoon Suk-yeol in move likely to ruffle feathers in Beijing
- South Korean leader calls new nuclear consultative group ‘unprecedented expansion and strengthening of the extended deterrence strategy’
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Orange Wangin Washington
Washington and Seoul announced that a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine will visit South Korea as part of a new bilateral framework to counter Pyongyang – a move likely to ruffle feathers in Beijing.
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The two allies on Wednesday issued a “Washington Declaration” after a meeting between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, underscoring they would keep pursuing additional steps to bolster extended deterrence to address growing nuclear threats by the North.
“Nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies or partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime,” Biden said on Wednesday, standing alongside Yoon at the White House after their meeting.
The document announced the deployment of US strategic assets more regularly to the Korean peninsula, including a US nuclear ballistic missile submarine visit to South Korea, which has not happened since the early 1980s.
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The strategic assets will include bombers or aircraft carriers, according to a US senior administration official on Tuesday, who added that it was “crystal clear” Washington did not envision basing nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula as it did during the Cold War.
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