South Korea and the United States will not incorporate a North Korean nuclear attack scenario into their upcoming major military exercise, the U.S. Forces Korea commander said Wednesday, despite expectations that the exercise would feature the nuclear crisis dimension for the first time. During a virtual forum, Gen. Paul LaCamera made the remarks as the two countries are expected to kick off the combined Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise this month, featuring various contingency drills, such as the computer simulation-based command post exercise and concurrent field training. After the bilateral Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) meeting in Washington in December, a senior South Korean official told reporters that Seoul and Washington agreed on a plan to include nuclear operation scenarios in this year's UFS exercise as part of efforts to strengthen nuclear deterrence against North Korean threats. "The answer to your first question is no. That's not in the scenario," LaCamera said during the forum hosted b y the Institute for Corean-American Studies, a U.S.-based nonprofit research organization. He was responding to a question from Yonhap News Agency over whether troops will train under a scenario of a North Korean nuclear attack during the UFS exercise and how the exercise will help improve the allies' nuclear deterrence. As Pyongyang has been doubling down on its nuclear and missile programs, calls have been growing for Seoul and Washington to reinforce its nuclear deterrence through realistic training programs involving North Korean nuclear attack scenarios, given allied drills are based mostly on conventional wartime scenarios. In response to such calls, the allies launched the NCG last year in line with the Washington Declaration that President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden issued during their summit last April to strengthen the credibility of America's extended deterrence. Extended deterrence refers to the U.S.' commitment to defending its ally with all of its military capabilities, inclu ding nuclear arms. At the forum, LaCamera also pointed out that a mutual defense treaty between Seoul and Washington does not specify a particular enemy, and that his command is geared toward defending "all threats" to South Korea. His remarks came as some U.S. conservatives have called for the U.S. Forces Korea to undergo a realignment to focus more on threats from China. "It's not just DPRK that threatens the Republic of Korea," LaCamera said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "There's a misconception out there. The mutual defense treaty of the United States and the Republic of Korea does not name an adversary. So we are focused on all the threats to the Republic of Korea," he added, referring to South Korea by its official name. Asked to comment on North Korea's sending of trash-filled balloons to South Korea and Seoul's resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts along the border, LaCamera refused to comment in detail. "We've had a lot of activities t hat can be taken as a pretext. He's had some activities," the commander said. "We're watching each one of them going forward, and I won't comment on sovereign decisions by the Republic of Korea." LaCamera touched on the future of security cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo, as he addressed a question about whether collaboration between the two neighbors -- long caught in historical feuds -- could continue to endure regardless of a future leadership change in both capitals. "The United States has to have the humility. We're not going to fix the historical differences or history," he said. "The comment that I made in open testimony is that World War II Imperial Japan is not the existential threat to the Republic of Korea. But KJU (Kim Jong-un) with nuclear weapons pointed at South Korea and Japan and the United States is, and my focus is on defending the Republic of Korea." Source: Yonhap News Agency