Biden and South Korea’s Yoon to announce agreement to deter North Korea including deploying nuclear-armed submarine

 Biden and South Korea’s Yoon to announce agreement to deter North Korea including deploying nuclear-armed submarine

A significant new deal to deter North Korean aggression will be announced by President Joe Biden and President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday at the White House. This agreement includes a new US commitment to station a nuclear-armed submarine in South Korea for the first time since the early 1980s.

The new agreement, which was reached after months of negotiations between officials from the two nations, will state that the US "(intends) to take steps to make our deterrence more visible through the regular deployment of strategic assets, including a US nuclear ballistic submarine visit to South Korea, which has not happened since the early 1980s," the official said. There is "no plan" to send any tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula, according to officials, who also made it clear that such assets won't be stationed there permanently.

Denying that efforts to stop North Korea from advancing its own nuclear program have failed, the US has decided to strengthen extended deterrence, a strategy that uses the full range of its military resources to defend its allies and position additional American nuclear resources in the region. Diplomatic efforts to persuade dictator Kim Jong Un have mostly gone unanswered as the North ramps up its missile testing and maybe gets ready for another nuclear test.

Yoon is being welcomed to the White House by Biden with all the fanfare and hospitality associated with a formal state visit. This is a crucial meeting in light of the continued provocations coming from North Korea, China's expanding influence in the Indo-Pacific, and the recent Pentagon document leak.

Greetings from the White House. In remarks made at the official arrival ceremony, Vice President Joe Biden remarked, "Today, we celebrate the unbreakable alliance, the common vision for our future, and the strong affection that binds the Republic of Korea and the United States. In a later statement, he referred to the alliance as "the linchpin of regional security and prosperity" in the Indo-Pacific.

Additionally, the trip demonstrates how seriously the US takes its alliances in the Indo-Pacific, especially because it occurs just one week before Biden hosts Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and months before Biden is anticipated to visit the area himself.