(Washington) Delegations from the United States and South Korea have conducted a nuclear conflict simulation exercise with North Korea in Washington, the two countries announced on Thursday.
“Given North Korea’s recent aggressive nuclear policy and advances in its nuclear capabilities, the […] scenario (of the simulation) focused on the possibility of North Korea using nuclear weapons,” they said in a joint statement.
The United States and South Korea delegations “focused their discussions on the deterrent force of their alliance […] and on potential responses to the use of nuclear weapons” by North Korea, the statement continued.
Both Washington and Seoul reaffirmed that they were “ready to respond to nuclear threats” from Pyongyang.
The delegations, made up of soldiers and officials from the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs of the two countries, carried out this simulation at the Pentagon on Wednesday, a day when military exercises were also held, very real ones, by the American forces, South Koreans and Japanese in the Sea of Japan.
These exercises were to be used in particular to “share information relating to the targeting of ballistic missiles and to improve detection, tracking and interception procedures”, detailed the South Korean Ministry of Defense in a press release.
The delegations that took part in the tabletop exercise at the Pentagon then visited a submarine base in the US state of Georgia on Thursday.
The United States has recently sought to reassure South Korea of its expanded deterrent capability to its allies, after North Korea declared in September that its status as a nuclear state was now “irreversible”.
Pyongyang also conducted a series of ballistic and missile tests in violation of UN resolutions and sent five drones across the border with South Korea on December 26, a first in five years, prompting Seoul to send troops there. fighter planes.