A top U.S. defense official says Washington and Seoul are not considering the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea.

Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller made the remark before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday.

Miller said the U.S. policy is to remain supportive of a nonnuclear Korean Peninsula, adding that the U.S. nuclear umbrella remains firmly over South Korea, and that neither Seoul nor Washington believes that deployments of nuclear weapons are necessary on the peninsula to sustain the deterrent.

On media reports that the coordinator for weapons of mass destruction policy at the White House, Gary Samore, said that Washington would agree to the idea of redeploying tactical nuclear weapons if Seoul made an official request, Miller said that Samore fully supports the U.S administration’s policies on the North.

The U.S. removed all its tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991, as the two Koreas signed an agreement on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.