The United States and South Korea are set to hold talks before year's end on issues tied to extended nuclear deterrence and a ballistic missile shield, the Asahi Shimbun reported today (see GSN, April 21).
The discussions would fall under the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee that Seoul and Washington "agreed to institutionalize" in October, according to a joint statement. Senior-level South Korean and U.S. defense officials are expected to determine the group's format and issues it would address.
South Korean defense insiders said their government would begin by requesting that the two nations swap intelligence tied to North Korea's nuclear arms work (see GSN, Nov. 11). The South would also like to talk about potential North Korean nuclear proliferation and how to react if attacked with various kinds of nuclear strikes, the sources said.
While Washington has stated its nuclear umbrella covers Japan and South Korea, concrete military details about what that would mean in the event of a nuclear assault have not yet been laid out (see GSN, Oct. 12). The United States has held off on providing specifics over worries that such information could anger China and give Pyongyang further grounds to continue its nuclear weapons work.
Seoul, though, has been urging talks about the nuclear umbrella to address public worries regarding the ramifications of future drawdowns of U.S. soldiers stationed on the Korean Peninsula.
The Obama administration might now be willing to provide these deterrence specifics because Washington "may have become worried that if it did not make a virtual guarantee of its nuclear umbrella, (South Korea) might have decided to embark on its own nuclear weapons development," a South Korean source said (Yoshihiro Makino, Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 12).
The discussions would fall under the Extended Deterrence Policy Committee that Seoul and Washington "agreed to institutionalize" in October, according to a joint statement. Senior-level South Korean and U.S. defense officials are expected to determine the group's format and issues it would address.
South Korean defense insiders said their government would begin by requesting that the two nations swap intelligence tied to North Korea's nuclear arms work (see GSN, Nov. 11). The South would also like to talk about potential North Korean nuclear proliferation and how to react if attacked with various kinds of nuclear strikes, the sources said.
While Washington has stated its nuclear umbrella covers Japan and South Korea, concrete military details about what that would mean in the event of a nuclear assault have not yet been laid out (see GSN, Oct. 12). The United States has held off on providing specifics over worries that such information could anger China and give Pyongyang further grounds to continue its nuclear weapons work.
Seoul, though, has been urging talks about the nuclear umbrella to address public worries regarding the ramifications of future drawdowns of U.S. soldiers stationed on the Korean Peninsula.
The Obama administration might now be willing to provide these deterrence specifics because Washington "may have become worried that if it did not make a virtual guarantee of its nuclear umbrella, (South Korea) might have decided to embark on its own nuclear weapons development," a South Korean source said (Yoshihiro Makino, Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 12).
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