N Korea threatens nuke strike over US aircraft carrier’s arrival in S Korea
North Korea criticized the arrival of a US aircraft carrier battle group in South Korea on Friday, calling it a provocation and raising again the specter of using nuclear weapons to defend itself.
Emboldened by its advancing nuclear arsenal, North Korea has increasingly threatened to preemptively use such weapons. But the North is still outnumbered by US and South Korean forces, and experts say it is unlikely to use its nuclear weapons first, although it will continue to improve those weapons without returning to diplomacy for now.
The North’s latest nuclear threat came a day after the USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group arrived in South Korea’s southeastern port of Pusan, following a US-South Korea-Japan naval exercise in international waters earlier this week.
South Korean defense officials said the carrier would be docked in Busan for five days as part of an agreement to increase the temporary deployment of powerful US military assets in response to the North’s growing nuclear program.
On Friday, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency called the arrival of the aircraft carrier an “overt military provocation” that proves the US plan to attack North Korea is coming to fruition. It has threatened to respond in line with its escalating nuclear doctrine, which authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons. weapons
The (North Korean) doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons, which is now open to the public, allows for the necessary procedures to be followed in the event that a nuclear attack is launched against it or the use of nuclear weapons against it is judged to be imminent, it said in the KCNA message I said.
“North Korea’s most powerful and swift first strike will be against the extended deterrence” used by the US to hallucinate its followers and evil bases in and around the Korean Peninsula, KCNA added.
North Korea claims it was forced to develop nuclear weapons to counter what it calls U.S. and South Korean plots to invade. He has often issued furious responses to the deployment of US strategic assets such as aircraft carriers, long-range bombers and nuclear submarines, as well as joint US exercises with South Korean forces.
Many experts say North Korea is ramping up tensions with its rivals to provide a pretext to expand its nuclear arsenal and then use the weapons as leverage to extract greater external concessions.
Since last year, North Korea has conducted more than 100 missile tests in response to expanded US-South Korean military exercises. Washington and Seoul say their exercises are defensive in nature.
North Korea passed a law last year that spells out a wide range of situations in which it can use nuclear weapons, including when it determines its leadership is facing imminent attack from hostile forces or when it needs to avert an unspecified catastrophic crisis for its people and government.
The US and South Korean governments have repeatedly warned that any attempt by North Korea to use a nuclear weapon would lead to the end of the North Korean government led by Kim Jong Un.
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