Nuclear attack on US or allies would end Kim regime, says defense secretary

Similar language was included in the US National Defense Strategy, which was released last week.

Austin, a retired US army general and the first African American secretary of defense, spoke to reporters at the Pentagon alongside Lee.

He said the two countries planned to return to large-scale military exercises on the peninsula. The Biden administration has taken such steps after four years in which Donald Trump placed unprecedented stress on relations between Seoul and Washington, saying

he wanted South Korea to pay for US military assistance that has been in place since the Korean war of 1950-53.

Trump, whose cavalier treatment of matters of nuclear policy has been extensively reported, met repeatedly with Kim, staging high-profile summits that produced little tangible benefit.