US can respond in 'overwhelming' way in case of NK ICBM attack: official
Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost, the commander of the Eighth Air Force and of the Joint-Global Strike Operations Center, made the remarks, responding to a question regarding what would happen to America's nuclear umbrella for South Korea when North Korea successfully acquires bombs capable of striking the continental US.
"It is problematic for them (North Korea) to have an ICBM ... With current and imaginable capabilities, it is extremely difficult to attack that system of systems," Armagost said during a forum hosted by The Korea Society, a non-profit organization based in New York.
"What that system allows us to do is to say that use of an ICBM would not result in the benefit that you are seeking because we can respond in a way that is overwhelming in the time and place and manner of our choosing," he added.
Armagost was referring to the US' nuclear triad system consisting of ICBMs, strategic bombers and submarine-launched ballistic missiles -- three key nuclear delivery vehicles.
"It's why we have a triad: ICBMs on alert, SLBMs for an assured second strike capability and bombers to be a forward and, or visible presence with regards to that ... what the triad does for a spectrum of capability for strategic deterrence," he said.
A second strike capability refers to a nuclear retaliatory strike capability that remains alive even after a country sustains a first nuclear strike from an enemy. An SLBM is the centerpiece of that capability.
The official underscored the importance of maintaining a "resilient" triad system.
"The numbers of ICBMs matter greatly. The numbers of on-alert submarine-launched capabilities matter greatly. And the numbers of bombers matter," he said. "Because unless you have a resilient system, the triad becomes a tricky thing."
Pyongyang's push to have credible ICBM missile capabilities have raised concerns that the US might dither on coming to the aid of its treaty ally, South Korea, as it could fear that continental American cities would become a target of a North Korean ICBM attack.
To dispel such concerns, Seoul and Washington have been working to strengthen the credibility of America's "extended deterrence" commitment to South Korea in recent years through a set of measures, including the Nuclear Consultative Group, the allies' key nuclear deterrence body.
To further deepen deterrence cooperation, the allies have been pushing for a "conventional-nuclear integration" initiative under which South Korea mobilizes its conventional military assets to back America's nuclear operations in a crisis scenario.
Whether such training cooperation would continue to develop remains to be seen as during his first term, President Donald Trump described military exercises between the two allies as "expensive."
In a separate press event later in the day, Armagost described allied efforts to work together in an integrated manner as a "powerful" thing, while refusing to comment specifically on examples of CNI operations between Seoul and Washington.
"When I talk about habitual training and planning and exercise relationships, what we see is the ability to seamlessly integrate those operations across the spectrum of conflict all the way from competition activities through crisis and conflict," he said during the event hosted by the Foreign Press Center in New York.
"That relationship of working together, planning together and operating militarily together is an extremely powerful thing to practice and to conduct. So that translates all the way from conventional operations to nuclear operations." (Yonhap)
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