First S.Korea-U.S. Nuclear Consultative Group meeting to be held later this month

The first meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) between South Korea and the United States will take place on July 18 in Seoul, South Korea's presidential office said on Saturday.

The meeting will discuss "information sharing, consultation mechanism and joint planning and execution designed to bolster nuclear deterrence against North Korea."

The NCG was first announced during the bilateral summit in Washington in April amid growing calls in South Korea for its own nuclear bombs, a step Washington opposes.

The announcement was met with concern from Beijing's Korean affairs envoy.

"China is concerned over ROK-US Nuclear Consultative Group's meeting to reinforce the enforcement of US's extended deterrence," said Liu Xiaoming, Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Korean Peninsula Affairs, in a tweet.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has said the group had upgraded the alliance with the U.S.

The inaugural meeting will be co-chaired by South Korea's Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo and U.S. National Security Council Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, according to the report.