Biden and Yoon are expected to hold out the possibility of pursuing a diplomatic solution toward what administrations have called the “irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” Biden's promise to protect S. Korea from nuclear weapons:
President of the United States from 2017 to 2021Yoon Suk-yeolWASHINGTON — In the four years since President Donald Trump’s leader-to-leader diplomacy with Kim Jong Un of North Korea collapsed after a failed meeting in Hanoi, the North’s arsenal of nuclear weapons has expanded so fast that American and South Korean officials admit they have stopped trying to keep a precise count.
The North’s arsenal will hardly be the only topic under discussion during Yoon’s visit. He and Biden will also celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance between their countries, commitments for more South Korean investment in manufacturing semiconductors and plans to bolster Seoul’s always-fraught relationship with Japan.
Few experts believe the shift in rhetoric or the threats about first strikes indicate a greater willingness by the North to employ nuclear weapons. The response would be devastating. But gone are the days when U.S. officials thought the arsenal was a bargaining chip, something to be bartered away for trade deals, or for the string of hotels that Trump said America would help build on the North Korean beaches.
North Korea’s most recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles — including one powered by solid fuel, which makes it quick to roll out of hiding and launch — suggest that North Korea can now almost certainly reach U.S. territory, even if its ability to hit specific targets is imprecise. And over the past year, the North has enshrined its nuclear capability in its laws and started talking about its first-strike capabilities, rather than casting its arsenal as purely defensive.
So the two leaders are expected to speak at length, publicly, about “extended deterrence,” with Biden offering more regular, visible visits of nuclear-armed submarines and aircraft to South Korea, bolstering the recently reinstated and expanded joint military exercises.
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