NCG Korea Representative Heo Tae-geun Likely to Become Policy Director

At last month's South Korea-US summit, it was reported that Heo Tae-geun, Director of Policy at the Ministry of National Defense, is likely to be appointed as the South Korean representative of the newly established extended deterrence consultative body, the 'Nuclear Consultative Group' (NCG). The NCG is the first high-level permanent consultative body specialized in nuclear-related discussions between South Korea and the US, holding regular meetings four times a year, with representatives at the vice-ministerial level from both countries.

The South Korean and U.S. Departments of Defense announced that they held the 22nd Korea-U.S. Integrated Defense Dialogue (KIDD) meeting in Washington, D.C. The photo shows the Korean and U.S. representatives posing for a commemorative photo at the KIDD meeting: Lee Seung-beom, Director of International Policy (from left), Heo Tae-geun, Director of Defense Policy, Ely Ratner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, and Siddharth Mohandas, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia. Photo by the Ministry of National Defense [Image source=Yonhap News]

According to government sources on the 24th, it is known that the vice-ministerial level official from the Ministry of National Defense will serve as the NCG representative, and within the Ministry of National Defense, there is a consensus that Director Heo, who has been continuing discussions related to the NCG with the US side, will naturally take on the role of South Korean representative.

Once the representatives from both South Korea and the US are decided, the full-scale operation of the NCG is expected to get on track. Some speculate that the first NCG meeting will be held before the anticipated South Korea-US-Japan Washington summit this summer. In particular, Japan has shown interest in expanding the NCG into a trilateral consultative body among South Korea, the US, and Japan, raising opinions that it is necessary to focus on establishing the bilateral NCG between South Korea and the US before the South Korea-US-Japan summit.

Once the NCG is operational, South Korea and the US are expected to jointly assess and share information on North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, and discuss plans and execution methods related to the operation of US nuclear assets.

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