--- title: U.S and South Korea Ink Nuclear Accord Amid Rising Tensions description: The focus on deterrence underscores how little the U.S. has achieved in its diplomatic struggle to curtail Pyongyang’s nuclear programs. canonical: https://time.com/6274803/us-south-korea-nuclear-deterrence-declaration/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-04-26T19:25:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:19.542Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S and South Korea Ink Nuclear Accord Amid Rising Tensions og:description: The focus on deterrence shows how little the U.S. has achieved in its struggle to curtail Pyongyang’s nuclear programs og:url: https://time.com/6274803/us-south-korea-nuclear-deterrence-declaration/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18add8fa2cefcf8a/698a3c48b3fce3f3350ca656/biden-south-korea-yoon-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: biden-south-korea-yoon-01 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S and South Korea Ink Nuclear Accord Amid Rising Tensions twitter:description: The focus on deterrence shows how little the U.S. has achieved in its struggle to curtail Pyongyang’s nuclear programs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18add8fa2cefcf8a/698a3c48b3fce3f3350ca656/biden-south-korea-yoon-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # South Korea Gets New Nuclear Assurances From U.S. Amid Rising Tensions > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Apr 26, 2023 7:25 PM UTC  President Joe Biden shakes hands with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden shakes hands with South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 26, 2023, in Washington, DC. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Apr 26, 2023 7:25 PM UTC President Joe Biden renewed America’s promise to protect South Korea against nuclear attack Wednesday through a series of security measures aimed at countering North Korea. The pledge comes amid Pyongyang’s advancements in a decades-long march to wield nuclear-tipped missiles capable of striking targets on the Korean Peninsula and continental United States. The focus on deterrence and dependence on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, rather than diplomacy, underscores how little the U.S. has achieved in its long struggle to curtail Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this month he intends to expand the isolated nation’s arsenal to “constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror” in adversaries. Just this month, North Korea launched its first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, a major technological achievement because it takes less preparation time to launch and is therefore harder to detect. The Biden Administration has made multiple public overtures to meet North Korean officials without preconditions. But the Kim regime has thus far ignored them after failing to reach a deal with President Donald Trump during a détente in 2018\. Since then, North Korea has proceeded with missile tests at a record-setting pace. **Read More:** [_Is The Biden Administration’s Policy Toward North Korea Working?_](https://time.com/6219676/north-korea-nuclear-missile-biden/) With fears of confrontation mounting, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the White House Wednesday for a state visit. Yoon and Biden signed a joint document, dubbed the “Washington Declaration,” which includes initiatives that reinforce America’s longstanding pledges to protect and respond to any North Korean attack. Among the guarantees contained in the agreement was a commitment by the U.S. to send Navy nuclear-armed submarines for port visits in South Korea for the first time in more than 40 years. The declaration also established a consultation group tasked with responding to North Korean nuclear attacks, and included provisions to enhance information-sharing as well as military joint-exercises. “A nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime would take such an action,” Biden said alongside Yoon during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden. “As commander-in-chief, I have the sole authority to use a nuclear weapon, but what the declaration means is that we’re going to make every effort to consult with our allies when it’s appropriate.”  South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol stands with President Biden on the South Lawn of The White House in Washington, DC on April 26, 2023. Oliver Contreras—Sipa USA/AP Estimates vary, but [analysts say](https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF10472.pdf) North Korea has produced enough fissile material for between 20 to 60 warheads to go along with an arsenal of several hundred short- and medium-range ballistic-missiles capable of hitting South Korea, Japan, and U.S. military bases and territories in the region. [The lack of progress](https://time.com/6219676/north-korea-nuclear-missile-biden/) to halt Kim’s growing arsenal has stoked concerns in South Korea about whether and how the nation can defend itself if war were to break out. The new agreement between Seoul and Washington includes confidence-building language and steps to reinforce what’s known as “extended deterrence”—America’s [willingness to use nuclear weapons](https://time.com/6228466/nuclear-war-risk-daily-issue-biden/), if necessary, to defend South Korea. “We want to customize our response against North Korea’s nuclear threat based on extended deterrence,” Yoon said at the press conference. Achieving peace with Pyongyang will come through the “superiority of overwhelming forces,” not the goodwill of North Korea’s leader, he added. A majority of South Koreans want the country to develop a nuclear capability of its own or host U.S. weapons again at bases inside the country. A poll published by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February 2022 found that 71% of South Koreans favor developing their own nuclear weapon, while 56% wanted to once again host American nukes, which were based on the peninsula for decades before being removed in 1991. The White House insists it has no plans to reintroduce shorter-range nuclear weapons in South Korea. “There is no vision of returning U.S. tactical or any other kind of nuclear weapon to the Korean peninsula as there was in the Cold War,” one Administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of Yoon’s visit, told reporters. The stance has been embraced by both Republican and Democratic Administrations, which maintain that such a move is antagonistic and unnecessary. **Read More:** [_A Korean War Veteran’s Remains Were Lost for 70 Years. Here’s What Brought Him Home_ ](https://time.com/longform/korean-war-remains-hoover-jones/) South Korea is a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, an international agreement wherein nations without nuclear weapons agree never to obtain them. But Yoon has embraced a hard-line policy on North Korea, and has, at times, raised the possibility of pursuing an independent nuclear path. “It appears to me that the Yoon government is patronizing such movements as a way of enhancing its bargaining leverage on the U.S. for its fuller assurance of extended deterrence,” says Moon Chung-in, who advised former South Korean President Moon Jae-in on national security and foreign affairs. “The new nuclear accord will be more symbolic than real,” he says. “In my personal view, it is not for Pyongyang, but for Seoul, aiming at particularly those South Koreans who worry about the credibility of the American nuclear umbrella. 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