US pledges to defend friends with nuclear weapons

(MENAFN) According to a senior State Department official, the United States military is going to use its entire arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend South Korea and Japan from attack. The official also criticized Pyongyang for its "dangerous" and "destabilizing" weapons tests and vowed "ironclad" cooperation with allies in Asia.

United States Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, highlighting the United States’ "nuclear umbrella" policy, said Washington would deploy its "nuclear, conventional and missile defense" forces should the two allies ever come under attack. Sherman was speaking ahead of several rounds of negotiations with her South Korean and Japanese counterparts in the capital of Japan on Tuesday.

North Korea's latest missile launches, which were a key topic of discussion during this week's sessions, were denounced by Sherman, who also blasted the DPRK's record-breaking number of weapons tests this year as "deeply irresponsible, dangerous, and destabilizing."

Before the three-way sit-down with Japan, South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyundong warned that Pyongyang's actions were "creating serious tension on the Korean Peninsula" in a separate meeting with Sherman. He raised the alarm over a recent revision to North Korea's nuclear weapons policies.

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