US and South Korea to hold nuclear weapons drills

The United States and South Korea will conduct simulation exercises to deal with the threat of a nuclear attack, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today.

Washington and Seoul will conduct “exercises based on increasingly complex scenarios of nuclear threats facing the peninsula,” Mr. Austin said in an article for South Korea’s national Yonhap news agency.

Mr Austin is visiting Seoul for the third time since becoming defense minister. He met with his counterpart Lee Jong-sap and was also scheduled to be received by President Yoon Seok-gil.

In the photo above, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, center, speaks with General Paul J. LaCamera, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, United Nations Command and Joint Forces Command upon his arrival at Osan Air Force Base in Pyeongtaek

His visit is aimed at deepening cooperation between the two countries, discussing security issues and reaffirming the “American commitment to deterrence” of North Korea, which is “expanded” and “unwavering,” according to Mr. Austin’s article. in Yonap.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula rose sharply in 2022 as North Korea carried out an unprecedented number of weapons tests, including the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland, in defiance of international sanctions.

Kim Jong Un announced in 2022 that his country aims to have the most powerful nuclear arsenal “in the world”, while in September he described North Korea’s nuclear power status as “irreversible”.

Seoul and Washington have been warning since last year that Pyongyang has practically completed its preparations to proceed with a new nuclear weapon test, the seventh in its history and the first since 2017.

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