Tag: nuclear weapons

This is a pretty easy call for the White House because the American public will be calling for North Korea to be turned into a glowing parking lot of they fired nuclear weapons at South Korea and the U.S. troops stationed there:

 South Korea and the United States agreed to take “swift, overwhelming and decisive” action using all of their military capabilities, including U.S. nuclear weapons, in the event of North Korea’s nuclear attack, President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday.

Yoon made the remark during a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden following their summit talks at the White House, outlining a joint statement, dubbed the “Washington Declaration”, that they adopted to strengthen “extended deterrence” against the North’s nuclear and missile threats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest person to call for the redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea:

The United States should redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula to make US extended deterrence credible against escalating threats from North Korea, said John Bolton, former White House national security adviser, on Tuesday. This strategy would also enable South Korea to buy time to weigh up the gains and losses of nuclear armament, he added.

“I’ve refused to give up on the possibility of stopping North Korea from getting deliverable nuclear weapons in the first place. That should remain (at) the center of our attention. This is not over yet,” Bolton said at the Asan Plenum 2023 hosted by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but the redeployment of nuclear weapons Bolton says is also a way to hold China accountable for allowing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in the first place.

This news is likely an effort to appease the majority of South Korea’s population that now supports the ROK developing their own nuclear weapons deterrent:

President Yoon Suk Yeol greets Korean nationals upon his arrival at Blair House in Washington, D.C., Monday (local time). Yoon is scheduled to hold a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday. Joint Press Corps

Seoul and Washington are likely to agree on carrying out joint planning and joint execution of U.S. nuclear assets, according to defense analysts, Tuesday, which would mark a major upgrade of the U.S. extended deterrence provided to its ally.

According to both governments, President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden will release an additional joint statement on strengthened extended deterrence after their summit at the White House on Wednesday (local time).

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

With the increasingly hostile neighborhood that South Korea lives in it is not surprising that a majority of South Koreans now support developing their own nuclear weapons to defend themselves:

About 56 percent of South Koreans support developing nuclear weapons to counter North Korea’s escalating nuclear threats, a survey showed Sunday. 

The survey of 1,008 adults, conducted by pollster Realmeter last week, found that 56.5 percent of respondents say they support building own nuclear weapons and the issue needs to be discussed at an upcoming summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden. 

In contrast, 40.8 percent said they oppose developing nuclear weapons.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The G7 can say what it wants, but clearly the Kim regime is never going to willingly give up their nuclear weapons. At some point governments are going to have to recognize that reality:

This undated image, provided by Yonhap New TV, shows North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui. (Yonhap)

North Korea’s foreign minister said Friday that the United States and the West have no right to argue about its status as a nuclear weapons power, slamming a recent joint statement by the Group of Seven (G-7) diplomats as interference in internal affairs.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui took issue with the G-7 Foreign Ministers that condemned the North’s unlawful ballistic missile launches and said Pyongyang “cannot and will never” have the status of a nuclear weapons state under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“G7 has neither authority nor qualification to say this or that about the DPRK’s exercise of its sovereignty and its national status,” she said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Sounds like more North Korean propaganda to try and strike fear in South Korea and impress their own domestic audience with something that probably doesn’t even work:

North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, state media reported on Friday, as leader Kim Jong Un warned joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. should stop.

During the test, the new North Korean drone cruised underwater at a depth of 80 to 150 metres (260-500 feet) for over 59 hours and detonated a non-nuclear payload in waters off its east coast on Thursday, North Korean state news agency KCNA said.

Reuters

You can read more at the link, but North Korea claims they can make underwater nuclear tsunamis to destroy naval fleets.

This seems like one of these incidents where Trump says something outlandish to be funny or elicit a reaction and the media runs with it like he is seriously going to do it:

Behind closed doors in 2017, President Donald Trump discussed the idea of using a nuclear weapon against North Korea and suggested he could blame a U.S. strike against the communist regime on another country, according to a new section of a book that details key events of his administration.

Trump’s alleged comments, reported for the first time in a new afterword to a book by New York Times Washington correspondent Michael Schmidt, came as tensions between the U.S. and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un escalated, alarming then-White House chief of staff John Kelly.

NBC News

You can read more at the link.

Considering the nuclear threats the Kim regime has continued to make against South Korea it makes sense to plan for how to respond to their use:

 South Korea and the United States plan to stage a combined military exercise next month under the scenario of use of a nuclear weapon by North Korea, Seoul’s defense ministry said Wednesday in its report to President Yoon Suk Yeol on major policy tasks this year.

Among other plans are holding a 11-day springtime South Korea-U.S. exercise without a break, conducting a final test of a homegrown solid-propellant space rocket and launching the country’s first military surveillance satellite.

Led by the allies’ Deterrence Strategy Committee (DSC), the discussion-based Table-Top Exercise (TTX) is set to take place in the U.S. in the latter half of February, as the two sides agreed to hold it annually at a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in November last year, according to the ministry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Not a good look for President Yoon that he is getting out in front of the U.S. on the discussion of conducting Joint nuclear exercises:

The White House statement came hours after Biden, responding to a reporter’s question as he exited Marine One, said he was not discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea.

The president’s short denial at the White House follows Yoon’s interview with the Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Sunday, in which Yoon said South Korea was holding “considerably positive” discussions with the U.S. about “joint exercise concepts” related to nuclear weapons.

“Nuclear weapons are the U.S.’s, but South Korea and the U.S. should work together in planning, information sharing, exercises and training,” Yoon said.

Biden’s response prompted a spokeswoman for Yoon, Kim Eun Hye, to clarify Tuesday that the U.S. and South Korea are discussing ways to deter North Korea from using nuclear weapons, including sharing information and joint planning with concern to U.S. nuclear assets, according to a statement from the South Korean presidential office.

The reporter’s question to Biden about talks on a joint nuclear exercise lacked important context, which led the U.S. president to respond with “no,” according to Kim’s statement.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.