South Korea and the United States revised their Tailored Deterrence Strategy(TDS) for the first time in ten years amid North Korea's escalating nuclear and missile threats.
Defense minister Shin Won-sik and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed the revised strategic military document during the allies' annual Security Consultative Meeting(SCM) in Seoul on Monday.
The TDS, first drawn up in 2013, is an inter-ministerial strategy aimed at deterring the North's nuclear and weapons of mass destruction(WMD) threats that was revised after its reflection of Pyongyang's accelerated nuclear and missile advancement was deemed insufficient.
While the document is classified, the revisions reportedly stipulate the usage of all of the allies' military capabilities, including U.S. nuclear assets, amid the possibility of a nuclear or WMD attack by the North.
While Monday's SCM talks centered on the operation of the nuclear consultative group that was agreed to by the leaders of the two countries their April summit, the complete outcome of the defense chiefs' meeting will be officially announced in their joint statement.