hankyoreh

President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea speaks during a status report meeting with the Ministry of land and Infrastructure and the Ministry of Environment held at the Blue House on Jan. 3. (presidential office pool photo)

The divergent remarks by the South Korean and US presidents on discussions of “joint planning and exercises” involving US nuclear capabilities in response to the North Korean nuclear and missile threats are drawing attention to differences in their attitudes on the nuclear arsenal’s operation.

When asked by a reporter Monday whether the US was discussing joint nuclear exercises with South Korea, US President Joe Biden answered in the negative, according to a Reuters report.

The same report went on to quote a US administration official as saying that “regular nuclear exercises would be ‘extremely difficult’ because South Korea is not a nuclear power.”

In an interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper published on Monday, President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea was asked what “effective plans” he had for responding to North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. In response, he said South Korea and the US were “discussing a plan for operating US nuclear capabilities based on a ‘joint planning and exercise’ concept.’”

“While the nuclear weapons belong to the US, South Korea and the US need to share information and conduct joint planning and exercises,” he continued, adding that the US had “expressed a fairly positive position.”

The quotes showed very different answers from the South Korean and US leaders.

After Biden’s response was reported, the South Korean presidential office worked to smooth things over.

In a written briefing, senior presidential secretary for public relations Kim Eun-hye said, “The Reuters reporter omitted the context behind President Biden’s remarks. If he was asked, ‘Are you discussing joint nuclear exercises?’ his answer would obviously be ‘no.’”

The presidential office and Ministry of National Defense (MND) also stressed that Yoon’s remarks were based on the content of the agreement reached between South Korea and the US at their 54th Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) last November. At the time, the two sides’ ministers of defense “pledged to further strengthen the Alliance's capabilities, information sharing, and consultation process, as well as joint planning and execution, to deter and respond to DPRK's advancing nuclear and missile threats.” No mention was made there of the “joint exercises” referred to by Yoon in his latest remarks.

A senior official with the presidential office told the Hankyoreh that “the joint execution plan includes various plans for the projection of US nuclear capabilities, including joint exercises.”

A military official said, “‘Joint execution’ is a larger concept than ‘joint exercises.’ ‘Joint exercises’ are included within the ‘joint execution’ concept.”

But defense experts said the sort of “joint exercises” that Yoon referred to differ from the “joint execution” concept included in the two sides’ SCM communique.

Kim Dong-yup, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies with a military background, told the Hankyoreh in a telephone interview that “joint execution is something that takes place at the level of extended deterrence.”

“In using the expression ‘joint exercises,’ President Yoon created the misunderstanding that [South Korea] would be actually engaging in exercises with nuclear weapons,” he added, suggesting that Yoon’s remarks could be interpreted as inflating the actual content of the agreement between South Korean and US authorities.

Kim Jong-dae, a visiting professor at the Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies, said, “‘Joint execution’ is something that happens in an emergency, which does not go beyond the scope of the existing extended deterrence. ‘Joint exercises’ are something that happens during peacetime.”

This raises the possibility that the US, which emphasizes its own exclusive authority over the use of nuclear weapons, might bristle at Yoon’s remarks. Some analysts suggested that he created the misunderstanding during the interview in an attempt to play up South Korea-US coordination in a gesture to conservative supporters.

By Kim Mi-na, staff reporter; Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter; Cho Ki-weon, staff reporter

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