PYONGYANG.- North Korea threatened on Saturday to increase its capacity combate nuclear and do what USA y South Korea pay “an unimaginably heavy price,” while lashing out at his rivals’ new defence guidelines that he said reveal their intention to invade his country.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol authorized the signing of a Joint Guidelines on Nuclear Deterrence as part of efforts to improve their capabilities to counter North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. The guidelines were adopted a year after the two countries established a consultative body to strengthen information sharing on nuclear operations and discuss how to integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korean conventional weapons in contingencies.
In a statement carried by state media, the North Korean Defense Ministry said the US and South Korean directives betrayed “its sinister intention to intensify its preparations for a nuclear war against” North Korea.
North Korea to increase its capacity
The statement said the escalating nuclear threats from its enemies urgently require North Korea to further enhance its nuclear deterrence preparedness and add “important unspecified elements to the composition of deterrence.” It added that the U.S. and South Korea “They will pay an unimaginably heavy price” if they do not stop their provocative acts.
Details of the U.S.-South Korean guidelines were not available, but experts said they are largely about how the two countries would integrate U.S. nuclear weapons and South Korea’s conventional weapons to respond to various potential contingencies caused by North Korean attacks and provocations. According to experts, the U.S. and South Korea are expected to work out detailed conceptual and operational plans based on the guidelines and review them through bilateral military exercises.
US Promise
The guidelines are the first of their kind among the allies. The United States has repeatedly pledged use all its military capabilities to protect South Korea if it is attacked by North Korea, but many South Korean experts believe the Americans lack plans for how they would apply their extended deterrence to their ally. Seoul does not have nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang has argued that it was forced to seek nuclear weapons to counter US nuclear threats. US and South Korean officials have categorically stated that they have no intention of attacking North Korea.
Concern about North Korea’s nuclear program has increased in recent years as North Korea has conducted a series of provocative missile tests and has openly threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively in potential conflicts with its adversaries.
Source: With information from AP