North Korea threatens nuclear response after US sub deployment

AFP | Seoul                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

North Korea’s defence minister said yesterday the current port visit of a US nuclear-capable submarine to South Korea could meet the legal conditions under which Pyongyang would use its nuclear weapons.

Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points ever, with diplomacy stalled and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for increased weapons development, including tactical nuclear weapons.

The United States and South Korea have stepped up displays of military muscle in response, and a US nuclear-capable submarine made a port call to South Korea this week for the first time since 1981.

Pyongyang’s defence minister Kang Sun Nam said the arrival in Busan port of a US Ohio-class submarine “may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons specified in the DPRK law on the nuclear force policy”, referring to North Korea by its official name.

North Korea last year adopted a sweeping nuclear law, setting out an array of scenarios in which it could use its nukes, including pre-emptive nuclear strikes if threatened. Kang said the presence of the sub was an “undisguised and direct nuclear threat to the DPRK”, and meant that “strategic nuclear weapons have been deployed on the Korean peninsula for the first time after 40 odd years”.

“The US military side should realise that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters,” he said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the Ohio-class submarine Wednesday, and warned Pyongyang that were it to use nuclear weapons against the South, “it will lead to the demise of its regime”.

Ohio-class subs can carry up to 20 Trident II ballistic missiles. The US Navy typically does not confirm if a submarine is carrying nuclear weapons before it goes out to sea. The allies also held their first Nuclear Consultative Group meeting in Seoul Tuesday, to improve their joint response to any nuclear attack by North Korea.