SEOUL, South Korea and the United States will hold the third meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) in Seoul next week to discuss in detail their shared strategy to deter North Korea’s nuclear threat, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

Cho Chang-rae, South Korea’s deputy defense minister for policy, and Vipin Narang, principal U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, will lead the meeting scheduled for Monday, joined by security, defense and foreign policy officials from both sides, according to the ministry.

The allies will review developments over the past year in various areas, including intelligence sharing, consultation procedures for a nuclear crisis, and conventional and nuclear integration capabilities, and discuss plans for going forward.

The upcoming meeting comes as North Korea has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula through back-to-back provocations, ranging from its failed spy satellite launch to the delivery of trash-carrying balloons into the South and
ensuing GPS jamming attacks.

The NCG was established under the Washington Declaration that President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden adopted during their summit in Washington in April last year as part of efforts to enhance the credibility of extended deterrence.

The first two meetings were led by the National Security Councils of the two countries. The inaugural meeting was held in Seoul in July and the second took place in Washington in December.

Source: Yonhap News Agency