The United States and South Korean presidents would sign a deal enabling US nuclear submarines to dock in South Korea after 40 years to prevent North Korea from assaulting its neighbor, per top sources in the Joe Biden administration.
In light of mounting worries over North Korea's nuclear threats and recent ballistic missile tests, the agreement, known as the "Washington Declaration," will be made public during South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's official visit to the US, according to AP News.
According to a senior White House source, the Washington Declaration aims to "strengthen US deterrence commitments" to South Korea in the face of ongoing nuclear threats from North Korea.
Three senior Biden administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the official announcement, Joe Biden and Yoon's aides, have been working on the plan for months and have agreed that occasional and clear displays of US extended deterrence capabilities are vital to the agreement.
One of the officials said that they planned to frequently deploy strategic assets, such as a US nuclear ballistic submarine visit to South Korea, which has not happened since the early 1980s, to increase the visibility of their deterrent.
US-South Korea Nuclear Sub Deal Highlights President Yoon's US Visit
One official also noted that the agreement would also establish a new US-South Korean nuclear consultation group (NCG) to enhance the exchange of nuclear-related information, the New York Post reported.
The Washington Declaration agreement will be the high point of Wednesday's state visit by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the White House.
The Federation of American Scientists claims that during the Cold War in the late 1970s, when the United States had hundreds of nuclear warheads stationed in South Korea, the US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines frequently visited ports there, making as many as two or three visits per month.
But when the United States evacuated all its nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula in 1991, Pyongyang and Seoul agreed to sign an agreement committing not to "test, manufacture, produce, receive, possess, store, deploy or use nuclear weapons," according to ABC News.
North Korea has consistently violated the joint statement, causing South Korea to advocate the US returning nuclear weapons to the nation.
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