SEOUL, October 2 (Itar-Tass) - United States and the Republic of Korea on Wednesday approved an action plan in case of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula, the South Korean Ministry of Defense reported.
It outlines the actions of the allies in response to Pyongyang’s threat to use nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and specifies measures to strengthen the U.S. nuclear umbrella in connection with a nuclear test carried out by the DPRK in February.
South Korea and the United States on Wednesday signed a joint military strategy that outlines how to handle the North Korean nuclear threat and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to strengthen the American nuclear umbrella on the Korean Peninsula in light of the communist state’s third nuclear test, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and his U.S. counterpart, Chuck Hagel, officially signed the bilateral “Tailored Deterrence Strategy against North Korea Nuclear and other WMD Threats” during their annual Security Consultative Meeting. The Pentagon chief reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to support deterrence capabilities with its full range of military capabilities, including the nuclear umbrella, conventional strike and missile defense, the agency reported.
“This strategy establishes a strategic alliance framework for tailoring deterrence against key North Korean nuclear threat scenarios across armistice and wartime, and strengthens the integration of alliance capabilities to maximize their deterrence effects,” the joint communiqué said.
The plan details contingency counter-actions against various nuclear provocations, calling for pre-emptive strikes against the origin of attack if the North were to use its nuclear weapons, a senior ministry official said, without elaborating on the details of the classified military information, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense said.
According to estimates of the allies, North Korea has more than one thousand missiles of various types.
At the meeting, the Minister of National Defense of South Korea Kim Kwan-jin stressed Seoul’s desire to create the Korean air and missile defense.