By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) -South&nbsp;Korea has upgraded its&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;alliance, President&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;Suk Yeol said on Tuesday, as he briefed his cabinet on a trip to the United States which pledged more&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean insight into&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;planning in the event of war with North Korea.
Yoon&nbsp;held a summit with&nbsp;U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington last week as anxiety grows in&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea over North&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;rapidly evolving&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;and missile capabilities and growing doubts that the&nbsp;U.S. would risk its security to help its Asian ally.
Calls have been growing in&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea, even among some senior members of&nbsp;Yoon's party, for it to develop its own&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;weapons. The&nbsp;U.S. opposes that, assuring&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea of protection under the&nbsp;U.S. "nuclear&nbsp;umbrella".
"The&nbsp;alliance&nbsp;has a&nbsp;nuclear-based upgrade and has expanded to include supply chain, industrial and science and technology&nbsp;alliances,"&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;told his cabinet.
Yoon&nbsp;and Biden agreed in a "Washington Declaration" to launch a&nbsp;Nuclear&nbsp;Consultative&nbsp;Group&nbsp;to give&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea more insight into, and a voice in,&nbsp;U.S. contingency planning to deter and respond to any&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;incident in the region.
They also agreed on new partnerships on supply chains and science and technology, including cyber security, electric vehicles and batteries, quantum technology, foreign assistance and economic investment.Yoon&nbsp;said the&nbsp;nuclear&nbsp;planning mechanism would be more effective than NATO's&nbsp;Nuclear&nbsp;Planning&nbsp;Group&nbsp;by facilitating more frequent high-level bilateral discussions.
More&nbsp;U.S. "strategic assets" would be regularly deployed to&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea to maintain an "overwhelming retaliatory posture", he said.
"We will build strong security, peace based on overwhelming strength, not the fake peace that relies on the good faith of the other party,"&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;said.
Some&nbsp;South&nbsp;Koreans, especially younger voters, have welcomed the summit's achievements, including&nbsp;Yoon's speech to the&nbsp;U.S. Congress and surprise singing at a White House state dinner.
But the opposition Democratic Party criticised a lack of progress on new&nbsp;U.S. rules on electric vehicle subsidies, which&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea fears could hurt its automakers.
A Democratic Party spokesperson said&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;"only sang a song at the world's most expensive karaoke" in return for billions of dollars of&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean corporate investment.
Yoon's approval ratings slightly rose to 34.5%, a poll released on Monday by Realmeter showed, marking their first rebound in four weeks.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Robert Birsel)

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South Korea's Yoon says nuclear group upgrades U.S. alliance