President Biden Calls US Not Discussing Nuclear Exercises with South Korea

President Biden with President Yoon. (Wikimedia Commons/Official White House/Adam Allah)

JAKARTA - The United States is not discussing joint nuclear drills with South Korea, President Joe Biden said Monday, contradicting remarks by his South Korean counterpart as tensions escalate with North Korea.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday Seoul and Washington were discussing possible joint exercises using US nuclear assets, after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un branded South Korea an "unquestionable enemy".

"No," Biden said when asked by reporters at the White House whether he was discussing joint nuclear drills with South Korea.

President Biden has just returned from a vacation in the US Virgin Islands, where he was accompanied by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

President Yoon's comments, in a newspaper interview published on Monday, follow his call for "war preparations" with "extraordinary" capabilities, after a year of record numbers of North Korean missile tests and North Korean drone intrusion into the South last week.

"The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but the planning, sharing of information, exercises and training must be carried out jointly by South Korea and the United States," President Yoon said in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

The newspaper quoted President Yoon as saying the joint planning and exercises would be aimed at more effective implementation of the US "extended deterrence" and that Washington was also "quite positive" about the idea.

The term "extended deterrence" means the capability of the US military, in particular its nuclear forces, to prevent attacks on US allies.

The United States has long maintained an extended pre-emptive dialogue with Japan to discuss the nuclear issue and initiated a similar dialogue with South Korea in 2016, said Thomas Countryman, a former undersecretary of state for arms control, who presided over the dialogue's first meeting.

"It's not clear what is new in President Yoon's statement and what is a repeat of things that have already happened," the Countryman said Monday in a telephone interview.

The Countryman, who currently serves as chairman of the Arms Control Association's board, said President Yoon's comments, directed at the South Korean people, appeared to be in response to what he called North Korean rhetoric and provocation.

"I see this as an attempt by President Yoon and the Biden Administration to reassure the government and people of South Korea that the US commitment remains solid."

President Yoon's remarks were published a day after North Korean state media reported that its leader Kim Jong-un had called for developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and an "exponential increase" in the country's nuclear arsenal.

At a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party last week, Leader Kim said South Korea had become North Korea's "undoubted enemy" and unveiled a new military objective, hinting at another year of intensifying weapons tests and tensions.