Yoon, Biden to announce Washington Declaration

Apr 27, 2023, 09:23 am

AsiaToday reporter Park Young-hoon

Presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden will announce a new joint statement called the Washington Declaration during their summit on Wednesday, which will include details on establishing a new South Korea-U.S. Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) and joint plans for extended deterrence.

“The two leaders are expected to adopt the Washington Declaration, which contains stronger extended deterrence measures,” presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a briefing in Washington D.C.

“The Washington Declaration will also include the creation of a new Nuclear Consultative Group between South Korea and the U.S.,” Lee said. “We expect that this will help the mechanism for information sharing, joint planning and joint execution of extended deterrence to operate more systematically.”

“We will take measures to make our deterrence commitments more visible through the regular deployment of strategic assets, including visits by a U.S. nuclear submarine to South Korea,” a senior U.S. government official said.

It refers to the possibility that various types of strategic assets such as nuclear submarines, strategic bombers and aircraft carriers can be deployed regularly on the Korean Peninsula.

On the new NCG, the official said, “The purpose of the NCG is to give our allies practical voice on major contingencies, adding, “It is a mechanism of peacetime consultation to share more of our ways of thinking about extended deterrence, to enable Korea to participate and provide their thoughts.” This is interpreted as South Korea’s participation in the U.S. extended deterrence process.

The Washington Declaration is expected to include measures to apply South Korea’s conventional assets to the U.S. strategic plan through the improvement of South Korea-U.S. joint training.

#Yoon Suk-yeol #Joe Biden #Washington Declaration