US and South Korea planning for ‘coordinated response’ to North Korea
Mike Brest
Video Embed
The United States and South Korea are in the process of planning for a series of scenarios mainly involving North Korean aggression, the White House announced Tuesday.
A day earlier, President Joe Biden denied that he and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol had discussed joint nuclear exercises, conflicting with his counterpart.
YEAR IN REVIEW: THE PENTAGON’S 2022 DEFINED BY HELPING UKRAINE IN WAR WITH RUSSIA
“President Biden and President Yoon tasked their teams to plan for an effective, a coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea. And so that is what the teams are working on,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
A day earlier, Yoon, whose country has faced an increasingly aggressive North Korea, indicated the U.S. and South Korean armed forces were conducting nuclear exercises.
In an interview with Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, he stated: “The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but planning, information sharing, exercises and training should be jointly conducted by South Korea and the United States.”
Last week, the South Korean military failed to shoot down a group of North Korean drones that crossed the border for the first time in five years. While they scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters, they were not able to shoot down any of the drones that ultimately flew back home or disappeared.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We have a plan to create a military drone unit tasked with monitoring key military facilities in North Korea. But we’ll advance the establishment of the drone unit as soon as possible because of yesterday’s incident,” Yoon said at the time. “We’ll also introduce state-of-the art stealth drones and bolster our surveillance capability.”
He also said the military needs more intensive readiness and exercises to prepare for the threats posed by North Korean drones.