North Korea threatens US with nuclear retaliation amid rising tensions
North Korea has warned that the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons by the United States on the Korean Peninsula "effectively meets" the conditions for Pyongyang to use nuclear deterrents.
North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam said in a statement on Thursday that the port visit of a US nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea “may fall under the conditions” for Pyongyang to use nukes against enemies to stop their aggression.
“I remind the US military of the fact that the ever-increasing visibility of the deployment of the strategic nuclear submarine and other strategic assets may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons specified in the DPRK law on the nuclear force policy,” Kang said in a statement carried out by the official Korean Central News Agency.
“The hostile forces posed the most undisguised and direct nuclear threat to the DPRK by bringing an Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarine to the Busan Port operation base, which means strategic nuclear weapons have been deployed on the Korean peninsula for the first time after 40 odd years,” Kang said, referring to the North by its official name.
The remarks are aimed at the Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), which arrived at a South Korean port earlier this week.
“The US military side should realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters,” the statement read.
“To the US and the ‘ROK’, any use of their military muscle against the DPRK will be their most miserable choice by which they will have no room to think of their existence again,” Kang said.
The statement also accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions in the region.
On Wednesday, North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the East Sea off the coast of Japan.
The launch came after the United States deployed the nuclear-armed submarine at the South Korean port in the southern city of Busan, the first in decades.
North Korea has strongly condemned a recent agreement between the United States and the South, which makes way for the deployment of American nuclear assets to the Korean Peninsula.
On Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol boarded the visiting American nuclear-capable submarine, with his wife at the Busan Naval Base in the south of the country.
“This means North Korea can’t even dream of a nuclear provocation, and it serves as a clear warning to North Korea that such a provocation would spell the end of the regime,” Yoon said, speaking before the submarine tour.
The United States and South Korea also keep holding joint war games in the region.
In Pyongyang, North Korean authorities have vowed to respond proportionally to the recent agreement between Washington and Seoul.
Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said in a statement the submarine visit would further bring the region “to the brink of an unprecedented nuclear war.”
The North Korean leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong also recently warned that Pyongyang would strive towards “further perfection” of its nuclear deterrence.
The deployment of SSBN to the Korean Peninsula “may incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict in practice,” a North Korean defense ministry spokesperson earlier this month warned, denouncing the US nuclear missile submarine’s planned visit.
North Korea also tested its latest Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile recently. Pyongyang said it was a warning to the US and other adversaries.
