Frank Smith
Press TV, Seoul
US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin visited South Korea this week with the primary mission of reassuring his counterparts regarding Washington's commitment to the US-South Korea alliance.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol restarted large-scale joint US military exercises last year. Although the US repeatedly deployed so-called strategic assets - weapons capable of delivering nuclear bombs - the South Korean leader wants more American firepower at his disposal.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has repeatedly suggested the need for the US to make a stronger demonstration of extended deterrence, its nuclear umbrella. And the South Korean public has grown skeptical of the US alliance, with the majority now advocating that South Korea develop its own nuclear weapons.
The US has also pressured South Korea to greater cooperation with Japan, and participation in joint drills. Peace advocates find such a trilateral alliance finds worrisome.
Meanwhile earlier this week NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited South Korea to encourage Seoul to send weapons directly to Ukraine, for its battle against Russia. South Korea is exporting weapons to countries that are sending their own military supplies to Ukraine, but it has so far refused to provide Kyiv with direct military aid.
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