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South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik (left) and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sign the 2023 Tailored Deterrence Strategy at the 55th Security Consultative Meeting held at the Ministry of National Defense in Seoul on Nov. 13. (courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense)

For the first time in a decade, South Korea and the US have revised a bilateral strategic document on tailored deterrence aimed at responding to the growing threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

The document, known as the Tailored Deterrence Strategy, is the top-level strategic guidance from the defense chiefs of South Korea and the US on deterrence and response to threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear, missile, and other weapons of mass destruction, and includes military and non-military responses that can be implemented according to each crisis situation, from when North Korea threatens to use nuclear weapons to when it actually uses them.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed the revised strategy document at the 55th South Korea-US Security Consultative Meeting held at the Ministry of National Defense complex in Yongsan, Seoul, on Monday.

The document was first drafted in October 2013 following North Korea’s third nuclear test, and the two countries have been pushing for a revision since 2021 as they believe it did not adequately reflect advancements in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and the threats they posed.

In a joint communique released after the consultative meeting, the two leaders confirmed that the revised strategy “reflects guidance on ways to leverage the full range of US military capabilities, including US nuclear capabilities and ROK conventional capabilities, in preparation against DPRK nuclear and other WMD attacks across armistice, crisis, and wartime,” using the abbreviated forms of South and North Korea’s formal names, respectively.

South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense released reference materials in which it explained that it has “elaborated a plan to strengthen extended deterrence execution capabilities in areas such as information sharing, consultation, planning, and execution to utilize all categories of allied capabilities, including nuclear.”

But “utilizing all categories of military capabilities” does not mean “nuclear sharing.” When asked by reporters, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said, “It does not mean that South Korea will share US nukes, but rather that we will discuss situations where North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons is imminent or where US extended deterrence is implemented.”

Separately, the two defense chiefs approved the “defense vision” of the South Korea-US alliance as a blueprint for the future in preparation for the alliance’s 100th anniversary, in 2053. The vision lays out three key pillars of alliance cooperation over the next 30 years: continued extended deterrence efforts against North Korea, modernizing alliance capabilities to strengthen the combined defense architecture of the alliance, and strengthening solidarity and regional security cooperation with like-minded countries.

Specifically, it states that the alliance “intends to work to enable joint execution and planning for ROK conventional support to US nuclear operations in a contingency to enhance the integrity of deterrence capabilities against the DPRK.”

For example, if a US strategic bomber carrying nuclear weapons were to come to the Korean Peninsula during an emergency, it would be escorted by South Korean fighter jets.

In the joint release, the ministers “agreed to pursue expanded cooperation of the US Shared Early Warning System (SEWS) to enhance the Alliance's detection capabilities against advanced DPRK missile threats.”

“Currently, the South Korean military does not share the information that the US shared early warning system sees in real time,” said a South Korean Ministry of Defense official, adding that “the idea is to share that information in real time so that it can be disseminated to our surveillance and interceptor weapons systems in real time.”

The US operates more than 10 early warning satellites.

Meanwhile, at a joint press conference that took place following the South Korea-US consultative meeting, Austin was asked about the suspension of a comprehensive inter-Korean military agreement signed in 2018. In response, the US defense chief said, “We agreed to stay in close consultation going forward.”

A South Korean Defense Ministry official stated that “we explained our government’s position on the Sept. 19 agreement, and the US listened to us. This issue should be talked about in terms of communicating and sharing information as an alliance between South Korea and the US, not in terms of deciding which direction the two countries should go.”

The official added that the Sept. 19 comprehensive military agreement was not on the official agenda.

Shin has argued that the military accord in question limits the South Korean military’s ability to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance and should be suspended.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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