South Korea and the U.S. will conduct a joint military drill next month to deal with a possible North Korean nuclear attack. The exercise is part of the two countries’ efforts to carry out extended deterrence.

The defense ministry announced the exercise during a policy briefing to President Yoon Suk Yeol, Wednesday, pledging to focus on building an “overwhelming response capability” to deter the North’s provocations. 스포츠토토

The joint exercise, which will be led by the two countries’ Deterrence Strategy Committee, will be a tabletop exercise (TTX) assuming North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons, according to the ministry.

The TTX has not been held since September 2021, but Seoul and Washington agreed to hold it annually at a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in November last year, in response to the North’s increasing threats.

So far, the allies’ TTX was mostly based on discussions on deterrence against North Korean provocations and crisis management, but a defense ministry official said this year’s exercise will be “more aggressive.”

“By expanding the scope of the exercise, we seek to upgrade intelligence sharing, consultation process, joint planning and joint execution, which are the four main segments of the extended deterrence,” the ministry official said.

According to Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup, Yoon said during a briefing, “Peace that relies on the other side’s good intentions cannot be sustained, and that cannot be called genuine peace.”

Yoon was quoted as saying, “In order to deter North Korea’s threats more practically and effectively, we should strengthen cooperation with the U.S. in each segment of the extended deterrence, and strengthen Seoul’s three-axis defense system.”