SEOUL: US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his counterpart in Seoul on Tuesday January 31 and promised to beef up joint drills and security cooperation as South Korea seeks nuclear reassurances in the face of growing North Korean threats.
After a year in which North Korea declared itself an irreversible nuclear power and conducted a banned weapons test almost every month, Seoul is eager to convince its increasingly nervous public of America's so-called extended deterrence commitments.
In a statement, Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup agreed to expand and scale joint military exercises in light of continued provocations from Pyongyang, including a recent drone incursion.
Military tensions on the Korean peninsula intensified sharply in 2022 as the North conducted a record number of weapons tests, including firing its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile.
Pyongyang sent five drones across the border on December 26, the first such incident in five years, prompting Seoul to scramble warplanes.
Austin and Lee agreed to expand and strengthen the scale and level of combined exercises and drills this year, Lee said at a press conference in Seoul.
He said that this was necessary due to changes in the security environment, including North Korea's recent attempts to upgrade its nuclear and missile programmes.
In February, two security allies will conduct a tabletop exercise to improve communication on deterrence and response options to Pyongyang's nuclear threats.
Austin said at the briefing that we're seeing things eye to eye. We're going to do a number of tabletop exercises.
Any joint US-South Korean military exercises frustrate Pyongyang, which views them as a rehearsal for an invasion and has often responded with threats and drills of its own.