According to a report by Reuters today (December 17), the second meeting of the US-South Korea Nuclear Consultative Group was held in Washington on the 15th local time. The United States and South Korea said in a joint statement issued on the 16th local time that the United States warned North Korea that any nuclear attack against the United States and its allies is unacceptable and will lead to the end of the (Kim Jong) Un regime. The statement said the U.S. side reiterated that any North Korean nuclear attack on South Korea would be met with a prompt, overwhelming and decisive response.
On the 17th local time, according to the South Korean military, the US Navy's Virginia-class nuclear submarine "Missouri" sailed into the port of Busan, South Korea, on the same day.
A high-ranking South Korean official has previously said that North Korea's possible test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile this month would be considered a nuclear threat regardless of its range because it can carry a nuclear warhead.
U.S. Navy Virginia-class nuclear submarine "Missouri" (data map)
According to a report by Yonhap News Agency on December 15, after the second meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group, Kim Tae-hyo, the first director of the South Korean National Security Office, had a discussion with South Korean reporters to introduce the results of the meeting. Kim Tae-hyo said that South Korea and the United States agreed to complete the guidelines within the next year. He noted that the guidelines will include the sharing of intelligence on nuclear weapons, the consultation process in the event of a nuclear crisis, and the establishment of a channel for security dialogue between the leaders of the two countries.
Regarding the docking between the nuclear and non-nuclear capabilities of the United States and the ROK, Kim Tae-hyo said that the ROK and the United States continue to refine the docking and utilization plans of the US nuclear and the ROK's non-nuclear combat capabilities to achieve joint operations between the two sides. Kim Tae-hyo also said that the United States' dispatch of strategic weapons to the ROK will be combined with the strengthening of extended deterrence, and it is expected that the United States will carry out its tasks together more systematically in the future. The officials also said that next year's joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States will include a nuclear combat scenario.
Kim Tae-hyo said that next year, the US side will conduct training on nuclear strategy for ROK government personnel to enhance the relevant knowledge and practical combat capabilities of the ROK nuclear policy leaders. In other words, the "nuclear IQ" of the South Korean side will continue to increase.
On December 15, local time, in the United States, Kim Tae-hyo, director of the South Korean National Security Office, had a discussion with reporters for the first time. Source: Yonhap News Agency
Kim Tae-hyo said that the work plan for the next six months was approved at the meeting. Accordingly, the ROK and the United States will promote the construction of an extended deterrence system for the integration of the ROK and the United States through the Nuclear Consultative Group. Before the next meeting in June next year, South Korea and the United States will lay a substantial foundation for optimizing the extended deterrence system.
On April 26 this year, U.S. President Joe Biden held talks with Yoon Suk-yeol at the White House. The two sides agreed to upgrade the "extended deterrence" provided by the United States to South Korea, continue to strengthen trilateral cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea, and strengthen cooperation in supply chains and key technologies. The "Washington Declaration" adopted by the two sides agreed that the United States would provide a "nuclear umbrella" to the ROK, agreed to expand consultations on the nuclear crisis between the ROK and the United States, establish a "nuclear consultative group" mechanism, increase the ROK-US military training and simulation exercises, and increase the deployment of US strategic assets around the Korean Peninsula, including the deployment Xi of strategic nuclear submarines.
U.S. Navy Virginia-class nuclear submarine "Missouri" (data map)
On 20 July this year, DPRK Defense Minister Jun-Nam Qiang issued a statement condemning the convening of the "Nuclear Consultative Group" meeting by the United States and South Korea on 18 July, and stressing that the anchorage of a US strategic nuclear submarine at the port of Busan is the first time that the United States has deployed strategic nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula in more than 40 years, posing the "most blatant and direct" nuclear threat to the DPRK.
The statement stressed that the United States is the only nuclear-armed country in the world that has openly defined the use of nuclear weapons against specific countries as a policy. Due to the reckless military moves of the United States and its followers, the military and security situation on the Korean Peninsula has undergone fundamental changes.
Strong also warned the U.S. that "increased visibility into the deployment of strategic assets, including strategic nuclear submarines, may be consistent with the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as set out in North Korea's nuclear force policy." The statement said that the armed forces of the DPRK will responsibly safeguard national sovereignty, territorial integrity and fundamental interests and prevent a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.
Qiang Chunnan was referring to the US "Ohio"-class strategic nuclear submarine "Kentucky" docking at the Busan operational base on July 18. On July 21, in response to the statement, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense issued a "Position on the Statement of the Defense Minister of North Korea," condemning North Korea's repeated threats of nuclear attack on South Korea.
Japan, another ally of the United States, is considering the FY2024 defense budget, and according to Kyodo News, the Japanese government has launched a final coordination on defense spending in the FY2024 budget. Japan plans to invest about 43 trillion yen in 2023-2027 to enhance its defense capabilities, of which the defense budget in 2024 will be significantly more than about 900 billion yen in 2023, increasing to 7.7 trillion yen (about 383 billion yuan), including the purchase of domestically produced long-range missiles and the development of a new generation of fighters.
According to the "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" report on the 16th, in response to the removal of Kishida's cabinet members, the agency and TV Tokyo conducted an emergency poll nationwide in Japan from the 15th to the 16th. As a result, the approval rating of the Kishida cabinet fell to 26%, down 4% from the results of the poll last month, and the lowest value of the agency's poll statistics since the establishment of the Kishida cabinet in 2021. In addition, the disapproval rate rose 6% from last month's poll results to 68%.
Source丨Comprehensive