The United States and South Korea will join forces to deter the DPRK, which is preparing to conduct another nuclear weapons test. Nuclear submarines of the US Navy will dock in the Republic of Korea for the first time in 40 years.
The submarines will be a key component in the so-called “Washington Declaration” aimed at deterring the DPRK. The plan to allow U.S. nuclear submarines to enter South Korean ports will be signed on Wednesday, April 26, by Presidents Joe Biden and Yoon Suk Yeol in Washington.
The agreement is aimed at dispelling the Republic of Korea’s fears about the DPRK’s aggressive nuclear program. The United States wants to keep the country from restarting its nuclear program, which it closed about 50 years ago by signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Earlier, the President of the Republic of Korea was considering resuming the development of its own nuclear weapons. Yun Seok-yol also considered the option of the United States deploying its weapons on the Korean Peninsula.
Both countries intend to strengthen coordination within the framework of a nuclear response strategy in the event of an attack by North Korea. At the same time, the United States would have operational control of all weapons, and nuclear weapons would not be deployed on the territory of the Republic of Korea.
As a presidential candidate, Yun Seok-yeol said that he planned to call for more active deployment of U.S. strategic bombers, nuclear submarines, and aircraft carriers in the country. The B-1B Lancer and B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers are already at home in the region, but nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines were last in South Korea in the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War. Sometimes they visited several times a month, and the Republic of Korea itself was home to hundreds of US nuclear warheads.
In 1991, a decision was made to withdraw American nuclear weapons. A year later, a declaration was signed between Seoul and Pyongyang, according to which neither country should test, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons.
As for the “Washington Declaration,” the source does not say which US Navy submarines will be going to South Korean ports. There are almost two dozen Ohio-class submarines in service. Four of them carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the rest are equipped with Trident II (D5) ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.
