S. Korea, U.S. hold 3rd Nuclear Consultative Group meeting
SEOUL, June 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States opened the third session of the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Seoul on Monday amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's recent launches of balloons carrying trash into the South.
Cho Chang-rae, South Korea's deputy defense minister for policy, and Vipin Narang, principal U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, will lead the meeting, joined by security, defense and foreign policy officials from both sides, according to the defense ministry.
During the session, the allies will review developments over the past year in various areas, including intelligence sharing, nuclear consultation procedures during a crisis, and integration of conventional and nuclear capabilities, it said.
After the second NCG session in December, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said the two sides agreed to complete the establishment of guidelines on the planning and operation of a shared nuclear strategy by mid-2024.
The latest meeting comes as North Korea has ratcheted up cross-border tensions with various provocative acts in recent weeks, such as launching trash-carrying balloons into the South and jamming GPS signals around the South's northwestern border islands.
In response, Seoul fully suspended a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact last week, and conducted propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts on Sunday for the first time in six years.
The NCG was established under the Washington Declaration that President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden adopted during their summit in Washington in April last year as part of efforts to enhance the credibility of extended deterrence.
Extended deterrence refers to the U.S. commitment to using the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, to defend an ally.
The first two meetings were led by the National Security Councils of the two countries, before the allies agreed for the body to be led by the defense ministry and the Pentagon.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
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