North Korea Slams US 'Nuclear Threat'
Published Sep 09, 2024 at 10:28 AM EDT
Updated Sep 10, 2024
North
Korea on Sunday accused the U.S. of posing a nuclear threat to the
country after Washington and its security treaty ally South Korea
conducted a simulation exercise.
The foreign ministry in Pyongyang said the U.S. and South Korea
conducted a simulation drill based on a nuclear war scenario. It
slammed the two allied countries for treating the North as a "threat,"
and said via the KCNA state-run news service that the U.S. was
"gradually clarifying" its nuclear threat to sovereign states.
The Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group, formed by the U.S. and South Korea, held
its fifth meeting in Washington, D.C., on September 4. Both sides
discussed and coordinated on security strategy and policy issues
affecting the Korean Peninsula.
Extended deterrence, also known as providing a
"nuclear umbrella," is a commitment made by the U.S. to deter and
respond to nuclear and non-nuclear scenarios using the full range of its
military capabilities in defense of South Korea.
South
Korea is one of the three countries in Asia, besides Japan and
Australia, that benefit from American extended deterrence. The two
countries formed the alliance under the 1953 Mutual Defense Treaty,
which was signed shortly after the Korean War armistice.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that North Korea, ruled by the Kim Jong-un
regime, had assembled approximately 50 warheads as of January. It has
sufficient fissile material for nuclear fission to reach a total of up
to 90 warheads as well.
As a non-nuclear weapon state, South Korea is protected by
the American nuclear forces. It is estimated that the U.S. has 100 B61
nuclear gravity bombs for potential use in support of non-European
allies, including in Northeast Asia, the Bulletin of the Atomic
Scientists said.
The U.S. has also enhanced the deployment of its nuclear forces in and around the Korean Peninsula. USS Kentucky, a ballistic missile submarine, arrived in South Korea in July last year. It was the first visit by a nuclear-capable American submarine in four decades.
There are currently 28,500 U.S. service personnel
deployed in South Korea, where they hold exercises with their South
Korean counterparts regularly to strengthen both sides' defensive
posture. The recent drills were the Ulchi Freedom Shield and the Ssang Yong.
Following the conclusion of the Extended
Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group meeting, the first
interagency table-top simulation by the Nuclear Consultative Group
between the U.S. and South Korea was held in Washington, D.C., on
September 5-6.
The U.S. Defense Department said the simulation
strengthened "the alliance's approach to cooperative decision-making
about nuclear deterrence and planning for potential nuclear
contingencies on the Korean Peninsula." It claimed its nuclear
commitment is ironclad.
North Korea's foreign ministry said in
response that it expressed serious concern as the "hostile forces" of
the U.S. and South Korea were openly attempting to make a nuclear attack
on a sovereign state. It said this would increase the possibility of a
nuclear clash.
"The U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail will be
thoroughly deterred by the DPRK's more perfect and developed nuclear
forces for self-defense," the ministry said in a statement that used the
official name of the country, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
The North would "strictly control and manage" the Korean
Peninsula's security situation while continuing to take practical
measures to cope with what it called a "long-term nuclear confrontation"
with the U.S., North Korea's foreign ministry warned.
U.S. Army fires a missile
during a joint missile drill aimed to counter North Korea on July 29,
2017, in East Coast of South Korea.
South Korean Defense Ministry via Getty Images
Kim Yong-hyun, the South's new defense chief,
warned on Friday that the North's regime would face the end in the event
of provocations. "We will make them pay a terrible price under the
principle of punishing immediately, strongly, and until the end," he
said.
Kim is a retired general in the South Korean army and has a
hardline stance against North Korea, the local media reported. During a
parliamentary confirmation hearing, he said the possible options to
respond to the North's nukes included the South's nuclear armament.
This
is how extended deterrence served another purpose—as a nonproliferation
tool. The U.S. can obviate the need for South Korea to develop or
acquire and field their own nukes by providing nuclear protection,
preventing further nuclearization of the Korea Peninsula.
However, there has been strong support for the redeployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in South Korea recently. The U.S. military stationed nuclear weapons in South Korea during the Cold War from 1958 to 1991, where it reached peak in 1967 with around 950 nukes.
South Korean Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said on September 3 that if Donald Trump is reelected, Washington's nuclear response to North Korea could be weakened.