US, South Korea sign strategic pact

The United States and South Korea have signed a new strategic pact providing Seoul with deterrence against what they call threats of a nuclear attack by North Korea.

The plan was signed on Wednesday, between US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his South Korean counterpart Lim Kwan-Jin in South Korea.

The agreement is to establish a “strategic framework” between the two sides in dealing with present and future “key North Korean nuclear threat scenarios.”

“The United States remains committed to using all our military capabilities, including missile defense, conventional strike, and our nuclear umbrella to provide our Korean allies with extended deterrence that is credible, capable, and enduring,” Hagel said.

He added that the plan covers all of Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction.

“There should be no doubt that North Korean use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable,” the US secretary of state said.

Hagel also said that Washington has no plans to reduce the presence of its 28,000 forces in South Korea, despite budget limitations.

Further details on measures in the pact were not mentioned in the joint statement.

The Korean Peninsula has been gripped with a cycle of military rhetoric over the past few months.

The United States and South Korea have been holding joint military exercises over the past months. Washington flew nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over the Korean Peninsula during drills in April. North Korea, in response, threatened to attack the US mainland with nuclear weapons and to enter a war with the South.

In March, North Korea warned that if Washington and Seoul launched a preemptive attack, the conflict would “not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war.”