Sharjah24 - AFP: US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol warned North Korea it would face a nuclear response and the "end" of the leadership there if Pyongyang uses its own arsenal.
Speaking at the White House after Oval Office talks during only the second state visit so far in the Biden presidency, the two leaders said the US security shield for South Korea was being strengthened in the face of the nuclear-armed North's aggressive missile tests.
And they made clear that if the isolated, communist dictatorship in North Korea attacks the South or the United States, the response will be devastating.
"A nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies... will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action," Biden told reporters at a joint press conference with Yoon.
Yoon said his priority was to secure peace through "superiority of overwhelming forces and not a false peace based on the goodwill of the other side."
"In the event of a North Korean nuclear attack," he said, Washington and Seoul have agreed to "respond swiftly, overwhelmingly and decisively using the full force of the alliance including US nuclear weapons."
A military honor guard and hundreds of guests massed outside the White House where Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee, arrived for a day of pomp and ceremony.
They rounded off the day with a lavish state dinner where Hollywood star Angelina Jolie was among the guests joining the Korean first couple, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
In a toast, Biden recalled the sacrifice by American soldiers to help fight the communist north during the 1950-1953 Korean War and said their countries were bound by "a belief in democracy, liberty, security and above all a mutual belief in freedom."
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