Over the past few days, the Yoon Suk-yeol administration has delivered mixed messages on whether it wants to include Japan in its new Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) with the U.S. 

Presidents Yoon Suk-yeol and Joe Biden announced the NCG during their summit in Washington last month to “strengthen extended deterrence, discuss nuclear and strategic planning and manage the threat to the nonproliferation regime” posed by North Korea. 

Around two weeks later, it briefly appeared that Japan might join these efforts. Following his summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on May 7, Yoon said that the Washington Declaration— the