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| South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol takes part in a meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Thursday (local time). Reuters-Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the U.S. Pentagon's National Military Command Center (NMCC) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Thursday (local time), where he received briefings from U.S. military leadership.
Yoon, who is on a state visit to the U.S., is the first South Korean president to visit the NMCC and the first foreign leader to visit DARPA. It appears to be a symbolic gesture from the U.S. to show its commitment to the Seoul-Washington alliance. It is also seen as a follow-up measure to the Washington Declaration, which calls for the two countries' leaders to discuss nuclear and strategic planning against North Korea's threats.
"Despite the strong warnings from the international community, North Korea is elevating its nuclear and missile capabilities and staging provocations at unprecedented level and frequency," Yoon said.
"If North Korea dares to use its nuclear arsenal, it will face decisive and overwhelming response by the Republic of Korea forces and the allies including U.S. military capability."
The NMCC is a key command and control center inside the Pentagon that directly assists the U.S. president and military commanders in emergencies. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera and other ranking U.S. officials attended the briefing.
Yoon said he and U.S. President Biden agreed a day earlier to strengthen the extended deterrence to respond to the North's nuclear and missile threats more effectively, and he "fully trust(s)" the U.S.' extended deterrence commitment.
"Now is time that North Korea should realize that they will gain nothing from nuclear weapons, and I urge North Korea once again to make the right decision for denuclearization for a sustainable and genuine peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," Yoon said.
Yoon and Biden announced the Washington Declaration during their summit a day earlier, in which they agreed to create a new nuclear consultative group to strengthen extended deterrence, discuss nuclear and strategic planning and manage the threat to the nonproliferation regime posed by the North.
Also, the U.S. promised to further enhance the regular visibility of its strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula, saying a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine will visit South Korea in the near future.
"The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea is ironclad and so is our extended deterrence commitment to your country which includes the full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including conventional, nuclear and missile defense capabilities," Austin said.
At DARPA, Yoon was briefed by DARPA Director Stefanie Tompkins on the overall operation of the agency and viewed advanced technologies under research.
DARPA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense and is widely known for inventing the digital protocols that gave birth to the internet. It also developed many of the technologies used for GPS, stealth, voice recognition, autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and others.
According to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon, Yoon said the South Korean military is seeking to upgrade its systems by incorporating advanced science and technology, and the country recognizes that the development of advanced science and technology is a significant factor for both economic development and national security. He expressed hopes to expand Korean scientists' participation with DARPA in advanced science and technology.
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