Seoul, Aug 1 South Korea and the United States staged their first-ever table-top exercise on integrating Seoul's advanced conventional forces with Washington's nuclear capabilities this week to better respond to North Korea's nuclear threats, officials said Thursday.
The three-day discussion-based exercise, named "Iron Mace 24," concluded earlier in the day at the US Forces Korea's (USFK) Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometres south of Seoul, after the allies signed a joint guidelines document on nuclear deterrence last month, Yonhap news agency reported.
In line with the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) guidelines on the allies' nuclear deterrence posture, the two sides have pushed to integrate their capabilities to better implement extended deterrence, according to South Korean officials.
Extended deterrence refers to the US commitment to defending an ally with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons. South Korea has relied on the US security commitment as it does not have nuclear weapons.
During the exercise, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) officials and their US counterparts discussed ways to strengthen extended deterrence, such as joint planning procedures for South Korean conventional capabilities to support US strategic operations in a contingency, the JCS said.
The participants, which also included South Korean officials involved in the creation of a new "strategic command" and USFK personnel, agreed to continue conducting the tabletop exercise to achieve the alliance's deterrence goals, it said.
The table-top exercise took place as Pyongyang has been doubling down on its ballistic missile programmes in what has been seen as a move to bolster its nuclear delivery capabilities.
In response to such threats, the allies launched the NCG last year in line with the Washington Declaration that President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden issued during their summit in April 2023 to strengthen the credibility of America's extended deterrence.
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