SEOUL (Reuters) – The first meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) between South Korea and the United States will take place on July 18 in Seoul, the South Korean presidency announced on Saturday.
The meeting will discuss “information sharing, consultation mechanism, and joint planning and execution to strengthen nuclear deterrence against North Korea.”
The NCG was first announced at the bilateral summit in Washington in April amid growing calls by South Korea for its own nuclear bombs, a step Washington opposes.
The announcement was greeted with concern by Beijing’s envoy for Korean affairs.
“China is concerned about the meeting of the ROK-US nuclear advisory group to strengthen the enforcement of the US extended deterrence,” Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese government’s special representative for Korean Peninsula affairs, said in a statement. tweet.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the group had strengthened the alliance with the United States
The inaugural meeting will be co-chaired by South Korea’s senior deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo and the US National Security Council coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell, according to the report. .
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Sandra Maler and Kim Coghill)