Ministry of National Defense: "End if North Korea Launches Nuclear Attack"

Statement on North Threat: "Deployment of US Nuclear Submarines is a Legitimate Defensive Measure"

North Korea has rebutted its own threat that the port call of a U.S. strategic nuclear submarine (SSBN) in Busan constitutes a 'condition for the use of nuclear weapons.'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 21st, the Ministry of National Defense issued a statement titled 'Position on North Korea's Defense Minister's Statement,' saying, "The holding of the NCG (Nuclear Consultative Group) by South Korea and the U.S. and the deployment of the SSBN is not a rehearsal for nuclear weapon use or a nuclear threat against North Korea, as North Korea claims." It added, "North Korea is the only entity that has adopted a nuclear force policy law including illegal preemptive nuclear strikes and repeatedly threatens nuclear attacks against the ROK-U.S. alliance while conducting actual preemptive nuclear strike drills."

The Ministry of National Defense emphasized, "As clearly stated through this NCG meeting, any nuclear attack by North Korea against the ROK-U.S. alliance will face an immediate, overwhelming, and decisive response from the alliance," and "We strongly warn once again that the North Korean regime will face its demise." It continued, "North Korea will never gain concessions from the ROK-U.S. alliance through nuclear development and threats," urging, "We call on North Korea to realize that only isolation and poverty will deepen and to promptly take the path toward denuclearization."

On the previous night, North Korea threatened in a statement signed by Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam, saying, "We remind the U.S. military side that increasing the visibility of the deployment of strategic assets, including strategic nuclear submarines, may correspond to the conditions for the use of nuclear weapons as stipulated in our national nuclear force policy law."

On the 18th, South Korea and the U.S. held the inaugural meeting of the new extended deterrence consultative body, the NCG, in Seoul, and on the same day, the U.S. strategic nuclear submarine USS Kentucky entered the Busan operational base.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.