Biden warns of annihilation if North Korea launches nuclear attack

Nuclear war with North Korea is back at the forefront of media headlines after President Joe Biden warned Kim Jong Un that any nuclear attack would be met with a response. 

Biden issued his warning during a formal state visit from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol that announced a new framework for deterring North Korean aggression. 

“Look, a nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies or partners is unacceptable, and will result in the end of whatever regime, were it to take such an action,” President Biden explained during a joint press conference with Yoon Suk Yoel. 

Biden’s comments were part of his and the South Korean President’s establishment of what the two countries are calling the Washington Declaration, a strong commitment to the “mutual defense relationship” between the countries according to the White House. 

The allies have agreed to engage in a deeper partnership that will see more cooperation in the areas of nuclear deterrence and information sharing on “growing nuclear threats.”

In order to accomplish this goal, the United States and South Korea have established a new intergovernmental organization they’ve named the Nuclear Consultative Group.

The mandate of the new organization according to a White House press release will be to “strengthen extended deterrence, discuss nuclear and strategic planning, and manage the threat to the nonproliferation regime posed by [the North Koreans].”

This new realignment of deterrence policy on the Korean Peninsula with give America’s southern allies more of a say in how the north is managed, something the south has been asking for and the U.S. has been promising for years according to an NPR report. 

According to BBC News, politicians in Seoul had become increasingly worried that the country might be abandoned by the United States in the event of a nuclear attack. 

"Until now, tabletop exercises would end before Washington's decision to use nuclear weapons," explained the Centre for a New American Security’s Duyeon Kim to BBC. 

"The US had considered such information to be too classified to share, but it is important to practice and train for this scenario given the types of nuclear weapons North Korea is producing," Kim added. 

The Washington Declaration gives the South Koreans the commitments they need as well as a seat at the decision-making table when it comes to deterring the North Koreans. 

President Yoon welcomed the new arrangement at the White House press conference and said that peace on the Korean Peninsula would only come from a combined effort. 

"Our two leaders have decided to significantly strengthen the extended deterrence of our two countries against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats,” Yoon said through the help of an interpreter. 

Yoon added that peace between North and South Korea could only be achieved through “the superiority of overwhelming forces, and not a false peace based on the goodwill of the other side.”

Part of the new changes will see the United States stepping up its presence in the Asian Pacific. The BBC noted the U.S. will send ballistic missile submarines to the area for the first time in over forty years, a major departure from previous American policy.

“What the declaration means is we’re going to make every effort to consult with our allies when it’s appropriate if any action is called for,” Biden said about the new policy.