During the summit in Seoul, U.S. President Joe Biden said he and his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, pledged to continue strengthening the “deterrent posture” on the peninsula in the face of “threats” posed by North Korea, and that they are working together for the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.”
For his part, Yoon said North Korea’s “nuclear and missile capabilities are advancing every day,” that both leaders share “a deep concern about it” and that they have therefore agreed to deploy “U.S. strategic assets” on the peninsula without adding concrete details.
Thus, regarding the North Korean nuclear threat, Seoul and Washington had previously agreed to draw up an “action plan” through which South Korea and the United States “will strengthen reliable and effective extended deterrence.” They now also pledged to “deepen and expand cooperation on critical technologies and emergencies and cybersecurity.”
“President Biden affirmed America’s deterrence commitment to South Korea using the full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities,” the White House said in a joint statement with Seoul.
North Korea has shown no interest in resuming disarmament dialogue over the past two years despite repeated U.S. offers and, after approving a weapons modernization plan last year, has conducted a record number of missile launches this year and is poised to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.
“U.S. will grow more than China”
For his part, Biden highlighted the analyses that suggest that the US will grow more this year than China, warned that “it is never a good bet to bet against the US” and again stressed the importance of strengthening supply chains, one of the main points of the visit of the tenant of the White House to Asia.
The leaders also pledged to cooperate through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), an initiative to strengthen U.S. trade ties. The U.S.-Asia is trying to sideline Beijing.
Biden does not close the door to meeting with North Korean leader
Meanwhile, Biden also said that an eventual meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would depend on whether he is “sincere” and “serious” in the face of reopening the dialogue on denuclearization, he said when asked about it.
The US president also claimed that Washington “has offered vaccines” to North Korea in the face of the wave of COVID-19 infections that the regime began reporting last week, although for the moment “there has been no response” from Pyongyang.
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