The U.S. will make deployment of nuclear strategic assets to South Korea “constant” and “routine” in response to North Korean military actions, the top military officials from Seoul and Washington said after bilateral talks on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-Sup also promised to conduct “large-scale field exercises” and include a “DPRK nuclear use scenario” in tabletop exercises next year to counter recent North Korean “threats” and “provocations.”

The meeting at the Pentagon came just hours after Pyongyang test-launched an ICBMtoward Japan, prompting Tokyo to issue evacuation alerts, though ROK military