Defense News:
The Pentagon and State Department remained careful Thursday when discussing whether strategic assets or missile defense systems could be moved closer to South Korea, but would not rule out anything when discussing US actions in response to Tuesday’s North Korean nuclear test.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters that the relationship between the US and the Republic of Korea remains “iron-clad,” a phrase he used four times when discussing the US willingness to protect its longstanding ally.
He also said the US would “consider every possible option that should be considered to further the defense of South Korea.”
However, just how far the US is willing to go is unclear.
Media reports Thursday cited a South Korean official as saying Seoul has requested the United States deploy strategic assets to the peninsula. Unsurprisingly, both Cook and State Department spokesman John Kirby were reluctant to address that directly.
“I’m not going to get into a list of options on the table, but this is something that is an ongoing discussion that we have on a regular basis already with the South Koreans,” Cook said. “In light of recent events, [the US] has only stepped up the contact that we’re having with the South Koreans and the communication we’re having to make sure that they are assured, other allies in the region are assured that everything is being done to ensure the sanctity of the alliance and our commitment to South Korea moving forward.”…
Another potential option would be to position Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems on the Korean peninsula itself, something that has been discussed before. As with the strategic option, Cook did not rule it out as something that could occur in the future.
“We have not had formal consultations on the THAAD system with the Republic of Korea; no decisions have been made on a potential deployment of the THAAD to the Korean peninsula,” Cook said, before noting “this is part of a larger discussion that we’ll continue to have with South Koreans about capabilities and about the alliance moving forward, but there’s been no formal discussions about THAAD deployment.”
