US and South Korea defense pact extends to cyberwarfare, outer space

  protos.com 2 h

South Korea and the US have explicitly stated that its mutual defense treaty, signed in 1953, applies to threats made in outer space and cyberspace.

The joint statement was made on Thursday in Washington, following a defense meeting between the two countries that last took place three years prior. Future cyber threats made to either country will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to see if it will trigger the defense pact.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the press conference, “We also affirmed that attacks in space or cyberspace that clearly challenge the security of the alliance could lead us to invoke Article III of the Mutual Defense Treaty.”

The US and South Korea have previously faced large-scale cyberattacks from North Korea that would have likely triggered the mutual defense treaty.