According to a warning from North Korea, the United States’ placement of strategic nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula “effectively meets” the requirements for Pyongyang to use nuclear deterrents.
The port visit of a US nuclear-armed submarine to South Korea “may fall under the conditions” for Pyongyang to use nuclear weapons against adversaries to deter their aggression, according to a statement from North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun Nam on Thursday.
In a statement released by the official Korean Central News Agency, Kang stated, “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.
read more: North Korea, Ready to use the “most overwhelming nuclear force” to oppose US military actions
The remarks are directed at the Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), which docked earlier this week in South Korea.
In addition, the United States and South Korea were charged with raising tensions in the area.
Two ballistic missiles from North Korea were fired into the East Sea off the coast of Japan on Wednesday.
The launch took place after the United States made its first in decades deployment of a nuclear-armed submarine to a port in South Korea’s southern city of Busan.
An agreement that was recently reached between the United States and the South and allows for the transfer of American nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula has been harshly criticized by North Korea.
President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea boarded the American nuclear-capable submarine on Wednesday at the Busan Naval Base in the south of the nation with his wife.
The North Korean government in Pyongyang has promised to react to the recent agreement between Washington and Seoul in a proportionate manner.
The region would be even closer to “an unprecedented nuclear war,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed in a statement last week.”
Kim Yo-jong, the sister of the North Korean leader, recently issued a similar warning, saying Pyongyang would work to “further perfect” its nuclear deterrence.
A spokesperson for the North Korean defense ministry earlier this month expressed concern about the US nuclear missile submarine’s planned visit and warned that the deployment of SSBN to the Korean Peninsula “may incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict in practice.”
Recently, North Korea also conducted a test of its most recent Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile. It was a warning to the US and other foes, according to Pyongyang.
