South Korea envisions U.S. nuclear weapons delivery systems as playing a large part in combined exercises going forward, President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday, as Seoul continues to seek enhancements to defend against North Korean military threats.

Yoon’s remarks in an interview with the Associated Press (AP), shared in part in Korean by his office, came after the U.S. appeared to shoot down Yoon’s earlier assertion that the allies would conduct “joint planning” and “joint exercises” with U.S. nuclear assets. 

Now using the term “joint execution,” phrasing included in the Nov. 2022 agreement after the U.S.-ROK Security Consultative Meeting, Yoon said