Seoul: A US Navy nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) will make its first trip to South Korea since the 1980s to show the determination of the US to defend the nation from a North Korean attack.

The visit was disclosed in a joint statement made at a meeting between US President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday in Washington.

US SSBNs rarely make public stops in foreign ports because they depend on secrecy and stealth to ensure their survival and preserve their ability to launch nuclear missiles during a war.

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"That could be a huge pressure on North Korea, because usually they don't share where those submarines are," said Moon Keun-sik, a former South Korean submarine captain and squadron leader.

In order to dissuade North Korea, which has been developing increasingly potent missiles capable of hitting targets from South Korea to the mainland United States, the United States has promised to send more so-called "strategic assets" to South Korea, including aircraft carriers, submarines, and long-range bombers.

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The submarine visit is also considered a means of reassuring South Korea and putting an end to talk in Seoul about producing nuclear weapons domestically.

"If a US SSBN visits and docks in South Korea, that is very unusual and symbolic... the US wants to show it is going for stronger deterrence in a visible way and to calm South Koreans' concerns," said Choi Il, a second retired South Korean submarine captain, to Reuters.

The recent deployment of US aircraft carriers and joint military exercises involving South Korea and the US have been denounced by Pyongyang as evidence of the allies' hostile intentions.

The US Navy operates 14 SSBNs, also known as "boomers." Each of the Ohio-class submarines is equipped with 20 Trident II D5 missiles, each of which is capable of striking targets up to 12,000 kilometres away with up to eight nuclear warheads.

According to a report by the Federation of American Scientists, there were frequent SSBN visits to South Korea in the 1970s, another time when South Korea was debating the strength of US commitments and the requirement for its own nuclear arsenal.

The report's author, Hans Kristensen, stated that the boomers "arrived at a steady rate, almost every month, sometimes 2-3 visits per month." Then the visits ceased in 1981, and the boomers haven't returned since.

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However, the declaration stated that it would demonstrate the United States' commitment to "further enhance the regular visibility of strategic assets to the Korean Peninsula." No additional information was provided regarding the South Korea visit.

Under the condition of anonymity, a senior US official told reporters that while there is "no vision for any regular stationing or basing of those assets and certainly not nuclear weapons" in South Korea, the visit would be a part of more frequent trips to the peninsula by strategic assets