By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At a summit next week between President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol the United States will pledge “substantial” steps to underscore its commitment to deter a North Korean nuclear attack on South Korea, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
“We are working extraordinarily and intensively with the South Koreans to take the necessary steps to buttress both public perception and the reality of our commitments,” the official told Reuters ahead of Yoon’s summit with Biden next Wednesday.
The official said it ranked as one of the greatest U.S. achievements that a number of Indo-Pacific countries that could have built nuclear weapons had chosen not to because of the U.S. ability to extend protection of its nuclear umbrella over troubled parts of the region.
“We have been very clear that our commitment to that nuclear deterrent stands is ironclad for South Korea,” said the official, who did not want to be identified by name.
“President Biden … will be taking substantial steps to underscore that, to update it, to make clear that everyone has little doubt of our commitment in standing with South Korea, even in the face of provocations from North Korea,” the official said, without elaborating.
Yoon’s week-long state visit next week to the United States comes at a time when more South Koreans say their country should develop its own nuclear arsenal to guard against attack by nuclear-armed North Korea and its expanding arsenal of missiles and bombs.
In a poll released on April 6 by the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, 64.3% of South Koreans supported developing nuclear weapons with 33.3% opposed.
The survey showed 52.9% of South Koreans were confident the United States would use nuclear weapons to defend South Korea in the event of a nuclear attack by North Korea. But the number dropped to 43.1% when respondents were asked if they thought the U.S. would risk its safety to defend South Korea, with 54.2% saying the U.S. would not take such risks.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Steve Holland and Costas Pitas; Additional reporting by Choi Soo-hyang in Seoul Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)
