South Korea seeks return of US nuclear bombers, unsure of China’s influence over Kim Jong-un’s weapons testing plans

Incoming president Yoon Suk-yeol keen to strengthen deterrence in light of North Korea’s recent missile tests, including an ICBM one last month

Analyst says China’s growing rivalry with Washington means Beijing’s ‘appeared to stop leaning on the North to behave’

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Protesters in Seoul rally against North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile launch in March, which escalated tensions in the region. Photo: TNS

Published: 7:00pm, 7 Apr 2022Updated: 7:47pm, 7 Apr 2022

South Korea’s new leader is seeking the redeployment of US strategic assets such as nuclear bombers and submarines to the Korean peninsula, amid warnings Pyongyang could conduct a nuclear weapons test next week.

Incoming president Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to “increase the solidarity of the South Korea-US alliance and strengthen deterrence and the response posture against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats” when he visited US army base Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 70km from Seoul, said his spokesperson Bae Hyun-jin on Thursday.

South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (R) with the German Ambassador to South Korea, Michael Reiffenstuel. Photo: EPA-EFE

On Wednesday, a team of Yoon’s foreign policy and security aides met US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Washington to discuss the North’s mounting threat displayed by its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test in March.

One of the advisers, four-term lawmaker Park Jin, said both sides discussed how North Korea’s nuclear and missile development posed a threat to the region.

“We agreed that it is very important to strengthen the [US nuclear] extended deterrence and bolster the joint South Korea-US defence posture,” he said, according to Yonhap News Agency.