The U.S. and South Korea announce moves to strengthen alliance

SEOUL, South Korea – The U.S. and South Korea announced steps on Wednesday to strengthen their alliance and deter North Korea, as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a state visit to Washington.

A U.S. official, speaking on anonymity, said Washington will deploy a U.S. ballistic missile submarine to the western Pacific for the first time since the 1980s, to be followed by other U.S. military hardware.

The official added that the two nations will establish a consultative group to discuss deterring North Korea from using its nuclear weapons, a group like what the U.S. had with European allies during the Cold War. Those measures will be outlined in a “Washington Declaration,” to be issued by the two leaders later in the day.

South Korea has been requesting and the U.S. has been promising to give Seoul a bigger say in how to deter North Korea, including more joint planning, consultation and intelligence sharing.

And it has stepped up joint military drills with South Korea, and the deployment of U.S. aircraft carriers, strategic bombers and submarines. In bilateral talks last November, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pledged to make such deployments a routine occurrence.

Washington has made it clear it will not redeploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, as hawks in both countries have called for. President Yoon suggested in January that South Korea might have to acquire its own nuclear weapons, but the U.S. opposes the idea, and Yoon quickly backpedaled from his assertion.

As the declaration emphasizes U.S. commitments to defend South Korea, Seoul will in return reaffirm its commitment to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

North Korea this month tested a new solid fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the latest addition to its growing nuclear arsenal. It has also revamped its nuclear doctrine to include the possibility of preemptive strikes.

South Koreans have long been inured to the threat from the North, but a jittery South Korean public has prompted Seoul to ask the U.S. for tougher deterrence measures. The announcements appear to be aimed at calming those jitters, by repackaging previous commitments or adding new material to existing policies.

U.S officials have suggested that aiding Ukraine will also be on the summit’s agenda, but Seoul has said the issue of sending weapons, as the U.S. has requested, is currently not on it. Pres. Yoon recently said changing South Korean policy to allow sending weapons to Ukraine is possible. But that would represent a major shift for Seoul, and Russia has warned South Korea that it could retaliate. The issue is sensitive because recently leaked U.S. intelligence documents purport to show that the US has been eavesdropping on South Korea’s presidential office, and their discussions about whether or not to comply with US requests to arm Ukraine.

Economic cooperation will also be front and center during Yoon’s visit. Yoon is being followed by a delegation of roughly 120 business executives, and the two countries’ nations have already announced billions of dollars in deals.

But U.S. requests for South Korea to side with it in competition with China have proved contentious. The U.S. reportedly recently asked Seoul to encourage Samsung and SK Hynix not to step up sales to China, and take over Micron’s market share, if the U.S. firm is sanctioned by Beijing.

China is a key market for South Korean chipmakers. South Korean opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung warned that “the government must firmly respond to such unjust demands from the US. No alliance can precede our national interest and the life and livelihood of our people.”

NPR’s Se Eun Gong contributed to this report in Seoul.