US has no plans to forward-deploy nuclear arms to Korean Peninsula: State Dept.
The United States has no plans to forward-deploy nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday, amid a resurgent debate over the idea of Washington redeploying tactical nuclear arms to Korea for deterrence against North Korean threats.
Vedant Patel, the department’s deputy spokesperson, made the remarks in response to a question about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent remarks that 토토 Moscow may consider additional nuclear deterrence steps in the event of the U.S. deploying ground-launched intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) to the Indo-Pacific.
“Let me just say that the U.S. does not assess returning nuclear weapons to the Indo-Pacific as necessary at this time,” Patel told a press briefing. “The U.S. has no plans to forward-deploy nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula.”
He pointed out that it was Russia that has engaged in “nuclear saber-rattling.”
“Let’s not forget that it is the Russian Federation that time and time again dating back to the early days of its aggression into Ukraine that it has recklessly participated in a nuclear saber-rattling, talking about the use and deployment of nuclear weapons,” Patel said.