{"id":21707,"date":"2026-06-12T01:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/us-south-korea-hold-nuclear-deterrence-talks-as-north-korea-expands-arms-push\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T01:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T01:13:06","slug":"us-south-korea-hold-nuclear-deterrence-talks-as-north-korea-expands-arms-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/us-south-korea-hold-nuclear-deterrence-talks-as-north-korea-expands-arms-push\/","title":{"rendered":"US, South Korea hold nuclear deterrence talks as North Korea expands arms push"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>SEOUL &ndash; US and South Korean officials discussed strengthening nuclear deterrence and readiness against North Korea&rsquo;s growing weapons programme on Thursday (June 11), South Korea&rsquo;s defence ministry said, at talks in Seoul under their Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG).<\/p>\n<p>The meeting follows growing concern that North Korea is expanding its capacity to produce weapons-grade nuclear material, after state media showed leader Kim Jong Un inspecting a newly operating nuclear-material production plant and calling for an &ldquo;exponential&rdquo; expansion of the country&rsquo;s nuclear forces.<\/p>\n<p>The sixth meeting of the group was co-chaired by Kim Hong-cheol, Seoul&rsquo;s defence policy chief, and Robert Soofer, a senior US defence official handling nuclear deterrence and weapons of mass destruction policy.<\/p>\n<p>Officials from defence, foreign ministry and intelligence agencies also attended.<\/p>\n<p>The ministry said the two sides reviewed progress across the consultative group&rsquo;s work, from information sharing and crisis procedures to joint drills and messaging, and explored ways to further bolster allied nuclear deterrence and readiness.<\/p>\n<p>[[nid:737543]]<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Last week, North Korea released images of Kim visiting a newly launched nuclear-material production facility and said he had reviewed plans to expand the country&rsquo;s nuclear forces, in what analysts saw as a sign of Pyongyang&rsquo;s intent to increase fissile-material output.<\/p>\n<p>Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Korea&rsquo;s output of weapons&#8209;grade nuclear material and its ability to mass&#8209;produce warheads could be higher than previously thought. That would be possible if several enrichment sites become fully operational, including Kangson, a new facility at Yongbyon, and a possible site in Kusong, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal reported that North Korea&rsquo;s uranium-enrichment capacity could rise by about 75 per cent once the new Yongbyon facility reaches full production, citing analysis by VERTIC, a London-based arms-control verification nonprofit.<\/p>\n<p>The facility was estimated to contain more than 9,000 centrifuges capable of producing about 160 kg of highly enriched uranium a year, on top of an estimated previous annual capacity of about 215 kg, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese President Xi Jinping also visited Pyongyang this week, his first trip there in seven years. Chinese and North Korean readouts emphasised stronger political, economic and cultural co-operation, but made no mention of denuclearisation.<\/p>\n<p>The NCG was launched after the 2023 Washington Declaration, a US-South Korean pact that included giving South Korea more insight into US nuclear planning over any conflict with North Korea.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>The talks come as Seoul is pursuing a transfer of wartime operational control from Washington, a process that has raised questions over how the allies would coordinate nuclear planning and conventional forces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>US, South Korea hold nuclear deterrence talks as North Korea expands arms push<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEOUL &ndash; US and South Korean officials discussed strengthening nuclear deterrence and readiness against North Korea&rsquo;s growing weapons programme on Thursday (June 11), South Korea&rsquo;s defence ministry said, at talks in Seoul under their Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG). The meeting follows growing concern that North Korea is expanding its capacity to produce weapons-grade nuclear material,&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/us-south-korea-hold-nuclear-deterrence-talks-as-north-korea-expands-arms-push\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;US, South Korea hold nuclear deterrence talks as North Korea expands arms push&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}