Biden, Yoon warn N Korea of nuclear response

US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol warned North Korea it would face a nuclear response and the “end” of the leadership there if Pyongyang uses its own arsenal.

Speaking at the White House after Oval Office talks during only the second state visit so far in the Biden presidency, the two leaders said the US security shield for South Korea was being strengthened in the face of the nuclear-armed North’s aggressive missile tests.

Following the statement by Biden and Yoon, China yesterday warned Washington and Seoul against “provoking confrontation” with North Korea.

Biden and Yoon also made clear that if the isolated, communist dictatorship in North Korea attacks the South or the United States, the response will be devastating.

“A nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies… will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action,” Biden told reporters at a joint press conference with Yoon.

Yoon said his priority was to secure peace through “superiority of overwhelming forces and not a false peace based on the goodwill of the other side.”

“In the event of a North Korean nuclear attack,” he said, Washington and Seoul have agreed to “respond swiftly, overwhelmingly and decisively using the full force of the alliance including US nuclear weapons.”

Yoon and Biden issued what was titled the Washington Declaration, bolstering the US nuclear umbrella over South Korea, which is increasingly nervous about the saber-rattling in the north.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning referring to the warning by US and S Korea, said, “All parties should face up to the crux of the (Korean) peninsula issue and play a constructive role in promoting a peaceful settlement of the issue.”

She urged against “deliberately stirring up tensions, provoking confrontation and playing up threats”.

Biden and Yoon also agreed that the US security shield for S Korea would be strengthened in the face of the nuclear-armed North’s missile tests.

Beijing condemned that decision saying, Washington “ignores regional security and insists on exploiting the peninsula issue to create tension.”

“What the US is doing … provokes confrontation between camps, undermines the nuclear non-proliferation regime and the strategic interests of other countries,” Mao said.