S. Korea, U.S. to update war plans

Seoul: South Korea and the United States agreed Thursday to update their joint wartime contingency plans to deter North Korea’s evolving nuclear and missile threats, the two sides said, in a sign of their stepped-up cooperation to reinforce deterrence against the recalcitrant regime.

Defense Minister Suh Wook and his U.S. counterpart, Lloyd Austin, approved the “Strategic Planning Guidance (SPG),” a document to set the tone for updated wartime operation plans (OPLANs), during the allies’ annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM).

Calls have persisted for rewriting the decade-old strategic guidance that critics said has become outdated following major advancements in the North’s weapons development programs, including its refined nuclear arms, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and a hypersonic missile.

During a joint press conference with Suh, Austin took a swipe at the North’s “destabilizing” weapons programs. -(Agencies)