US Prepares South Korea To Face Nuclear Attack by North

The United States has recently provided military training to South Korea, its treaty ally in Northeast Asia, for operating under a nuclear attack that might be launched by North Korea.

Newsweek has reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China for comment by email.

Why It Matters

North Korea is one of the nine countries armed with nuclear weapons. Its leader, Kim Jong Un, has pledged to keep the country’s nuclear arsenal, which is estimated to have around 50 warheads, to strengthen deterrents against the U.S. and its South Korean and Japanese allies.

Facing North Korea’s nuclear threats, the U.S. has been rotating its military assets, including aircraft carriers, heavy bombers, and nuclear-armed submarines, to the Korean Peninsula as a show of force while pursuing the goal of the “complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

What To Know

From April 15 to 16, the U.S. Army Nuclear and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Agency, which provides nuclear and countering weapons of mass destruction expertise and analysis, conducted the first training course in South Korea, the U.S. Forces Korea revealed.

The training, formally known as the Nuclear Weapon Effects Course-Korea, took place at a South Korean Strategic Command facility in Seoul. The command was launched in October 2024 to counter nuclear and weapons of mass destruction threats posed by North Korea.

The course aimed at equipping participants with “knowledge and skills necessary to operate effectively in and through a nuclear environment,” the U.S. Forces Korea said in the press release on Tuesday, which can strengthen deterrence against “nuclear-armed adversaries.”

A total of eight South Korean members, assigned to the Strategic Command and the Defense Ministry, took part in the training, as well as five people sent by the U.S.-South Korea joint warfighting headquarters, the Combined Forces Command, according to the press release.

South Korean admiral Kim Myung Soo, who serves as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the country’s top military officer, on Thursday visited a bunker buster missile unit, which operates the domestically developed Korean Tactical Surface to Surface Missile.

During the visit, the admiral urged for what he called “overwhelming capabilities” to deter potential provocations from North Korea, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported.

What People Are Saying

The U.S. Forces Korea said: “The training content is also directly applicable to Alliance tabletop exercises and wargames focused on conventional-nuclear integration, and enhancing the combined joint force’s strategic understanding.”

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pursuing stronger, strategic, and conventional capabilities that can target U.S. forces and allies in the region, as well as the U.S. homeland, to bolster North Korea’s leverage and stature, defend its regime, and achieve at least tacit recognition as a nuclear weapons power.”

What Happens Next

It remains to be seen when North Korea will carry out a new round of provocations, such as launching ballistic missiles, as the U.S. is enhancing its military presence in Northeast Asia.