Yoon reaffirms plan to upgrade extended deterrence in New Year

President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed confidence that a plan to bolster extended deterrence on the Korean Peninsula could materialize before the end of June in his New Year's speech to the nation Monday.

"By the first half of this year, we will complete the enhanced (Republic of Korea)-US extended deterrence system to fundamentally deter any North Korean nuclear and missile threat," Yoon said in a televised speech from his office, referring to South Korea as the ROK.

In April, Yoon and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, said they were committed to "cooperative decision-making in nuclear deterrence" and the joint execution and planning for South Korea's support to US nuclear operations, to jointly defend North Korea's potential use of nuclear weapons directed at South Korea.

Yoon and Biden's agreements under the Washington Declaration also contained plans to establish the vice-ministerial Nuclear Consultative Group to expand the deployment of US strategic assets, in addition to the standing vice-minister-level body Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group.

After a recent Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Washington in December, Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy chief of the presidential National Security Office, told reporters that the consultative body is working to "complete the extended nuclear deterrence system in about June," when the next NCG meeting is poised to take place.

"In accordance with the Korea-US Washington Declaration, we launched the Nuclear Consultative Group and established a nuclear-based ROK-US military alliance," Yoon said in Monday's address.

"(South Korea) is firmly building a genuine and lasting peace. Korea will build peace through strength. It will not be a submissive peace that is dependent on the good will of the adversary," he added.

On the domestic front, Yoon said South Korea will work to rebalance national economic growth by stimulating development in underdeveloped regions to tackle the country's extremely low birth rate, adding that the highly competitive nature of Korean society was contributing to the problem.

The birth rate is forecast to see a significant slip to 0.68 in 2024, down from 0.78 in 2023, hitting another record low after falling for six straight years, according to a projection by Statistics Korea in December.

"It is very important to ease the unnecessary and excessive competition in our society, which has been pointed as one of the causes of low birth rate," Yoon said. "To this end, we will resolutely pursue a balanced national development, an important policy objective of my administration, as planned."

Yoon added his pursuit of labor, education and pension reforms will continue through 2024, reiterating his remarks in the previous New Year's message in January 2023.

In particular, he pledged to pursue a flexible labor market by having more companies adopt working arrangements such as flexible working hours, as well as merit-based wage systems instead of seniority-based ones.

As for measures to protect teachers from bullying potentially by their students or their parents -- which allegedly led to some teacher suicides last year -- Yoon said, "Cases of school violence will be handled not by teachers but by designated professionals."

Yoon added that his administration will work to "increase the supply of urban housing" and expedite redevelopment and reconstruction projects, with the supply of "small units suitable for one- or two-person households" taken into account.

Yoon's approval rating has dipped to 37.2 percent as of the final week of December, compared with the previous year's 40 percent, according to pollster Realmeter.