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US, South Korea meet for nuclear talks amid North Korea threat

For the first time since the 1980s, a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine is in South Korea, a senior US official says as allies launch talks to coordinate responses in the event of a nuclear war with North Korea.

AP

The meeting came just days after North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile. / Photo: AP

The first meeting of South Korea and the US in their joint Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) has begun in Seoul amid efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear threat, local media has reported.

Tuesday's summit is the first gathering of officials from Seoul and Washington to discuss the temporary deployment of more nuclear-capable assets to South Korea.

This follows agreement between South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and his US counterpart Joe Biden at an April summit to create the NCG.

"If you look at North Korea's recent activities, it appears to have made a decision that it is better to pressure South Korea with nuclear capabilities and get the upper hand on the Korean Peninsula," Seoul-based Yonhap News quoted Vice Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul as saying.

"Deterring North Korea's nuclear capabilities," is the most urgent thing right now, Shin said, pointing to the importance of the NCG meeting.

The latest development came just days after North Korea test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

North Korea stages huge parade, holds back on advanced missiles

Blocking nuclear threats

President Yoon also called the gathering of senior security and defence officials an "important starting point" for building strong and effective South Korea-US extended deterrence.

"It will carry out actual efforts to block North Korea's nuclear and missile threats at their source through a South Korea-US alliance upgraded to a new nuclear-based paradigm," presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said at a Cabinet meeting.

"The NCG must strengthen extended deterrence credibility to respond thoroughly to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats," he added.

North Korea on Wednesday fired a long-range ballistic missile into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, claiming to have set a new record flight time of 74 minutes and 51 seconds, the longest for a North Korean missile.

The missile came down in what South Korea calls the East Sea and Tokyo calls the Sea of Japan.

Pyongyang has launched 12 missiles this year, including the intercontinental ballistic-class Hwasong-15, Hwasong-17, and Hwasong-18 missiles, as well as its first military spy satellite in May, though this crashed into the Korean Sea.