SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday he has upgraded the country\u2019s alliance with the United States to one that is \u201cnuclear-based\u201d in the face of North Korea\u2019s growing military threat.
\nYoon was referring to his talks with US President Joe Biden in April on Washington\u2019s willingness to give Seoul more insight into its nuclear planning in the event of potential conflict with nuclear-armed North Korea.
\n\u201cNorth Korea is enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities, and has legislated the use of nuclear weapons,\u201d Yoon said in a speech marking South Korea\u2019s Memorial Day.
\nAt their summit in Washington, the two leaders agreed to strengthen the so-called US extended deterrence, which envisions the use of US nuclear weapons to defend the South.
\n\u201cThe South Korea-US alliance has now been elevated to \u2018nuclear-based\u2019 alliance,\u201d Yoon said.
\nNorth Korea this year test-fired its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile and last week attempted to launch its first spy satellite, although the rocket and the payload plunged into the sea.
\nNorth Korea made a rare and swift admission of the launch\u2019s failure but vowed to try again and put a satellite in orbit to increase its military surveillance capabilities.
\nThe launch was widely condemned as violating UN Security Council resolutions that ban the use of ballistic missile technology by the North.
\nPyongyang has rejected the ban as an infringement of its sovereign right to self-defense and space development.
\nWhile Yoon characterized his talks with Biden as an agreement to use US nuclear weapons in the event of a North Korean nuclear attack, Biden reiterated a pledge \u201cto make every effort to consult\u201d with allies on the use of a nuclear weapon.
\nYoon did not elaborate further on the subject and devoted most of his Memorial Day speech to honoring those who had made sacrifices in defense of the country.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s military has been undertaking a salvage operation at sea off the west coast to recover a substantial segment of the rocket launched by the North on May 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday he has upgraded the country\u2019s alliance with the United States to one that is \u201cnuclear-based\u201d in the face of North Korea\u2019s growing military threat. Yoon was referring to his talks with US President Joe Biden in April on Washington\u2019s willingness to give Seoul more insight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-335835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n