Senior Republic of Korea and United States defense officials recently held their third meeting on developing guidelines to strengthen their response to North Korea’s nuclear threats.
The Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) met in June 2024 in Seoul to review principles and procedures for the alliance to maintain and strengthen a credible and effective nuclear deterrence policy and posture, according to a joint statement. Cho Chang-rae, South Korea’s deputy minister for national defense policy, and Vipin Narang, U.S. acting assistant secretary of defense for space policy, co-chaired the meeting. Officials from the South Korean National Security Office, U.S. National Security Council, and relevant defense, foreign affairs, intelligence, and military authorities also took part in the meeting.
One NCG workstream focused on joint and combined planning of the two countries’ conventional-nuclear integration options on the Korean Peninsula, according to a joint news release. The NCG reaffirmed that integration of the ROK’s conventional capabilities with U.S. nuclear operations “substantively strengthens the allied deterrence and response capabilities against the [North Korea] nuclear and missile threat.”
“The two sides agreed that the joint guidelines will provide a solid foundation to strengthen cooperation for the unitary South Korea-U.S. extended deterrence (system),” Yonhap News reported.
The NCG was established under the Washington Declaration that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden adopted during their summit in Washington, D.C., in April 2023. This most recent meeting came amid signs that North Korea is accelerating development of nuclear arms and delivery systems. The guidelines enable the allies to integrate conventional and nuclear capabilities during a crisis, Narang told Reuters.
“The guidelines cover the principles and procedures for consultations, particularly in a [North Korean] nuclear crisis, and inform alliance operational concepts and exercises,” Narang said.
The two countries, joined by Japan, also conducted the multidomain exercise Freedom Edge in June 2024. Freedom Edge represents the countries’ first tri-nation exercise and was initially announced during the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue 2024 in Singapore. The name is derived from two routine exercises: Freedom Shield, an annual joint exercise between ROK and U.S. forces simulating a North Korean invasion, and Keen Edge, a joint exercise by the United States and Japan to respond to regional threats.
During Freedom Edge, ships and aircraft from the three countries focused on cooperative ballistic missile defense, air defense, antisubmarine warfare, search and rescue, maritime interdiction, and defensive cyber training, according to a trilateral statement.
Outside of Australia, Japan and South Korea are the only U.S. partners in the region with military capabilties to integrate operations with the U.S. so that if, for example, South Korea were to detect a target, it could quickly relay details so its Japanese or U.S. counterparts could respond, Ridzwan Rahmat, a Singapore-based analyst with the defense intelligence company Janes, told The Associated Press. “That’s the kind of interoperability that is involved in a typical war scenario,” Rahmat said. “For trilateral exercises like this, the intention is to develop the interoperability between the three armed forces so that they can fight better as a cohesive fighting force.”