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The USS Kentucky (SSBN-737), a nuclear-capable American submarine, sits in a naval port in Busan on July 19. (presidential office pool photo)

North Korea said Thursday that a US nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine’s arrival at the South Korean port of Busan — the first such visit in 42 years — met one of the conditions for using nuclear weapons under a North Korean law governing nuclear arsenal policy.

“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 [North Korean] law on the nuclear force policy,” said North Korean Defense Minister Kang Sun-nam in a press statement on Thursday.

“The DPRK’s doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons allows [. . .] necessary action [to be taken] in case a nuclear attack is launched against it or [it judges] that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent,” Kang said in the statement, which was printed by the Korean Central News Agency.

“The US military side should realize that its nuclear assets have entered extremely dangerous waters.”

Kang also had some choice words for South Korea.

“I seriously warn once again the US and the ‘ROK’ military gangsters’ group daringly touting the ‘end of regime’ in our country. 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.”

ROK here stands for Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.

Kang’s statement came in response to the Busan port call made by the USS Kentucky, a nuclear ballistic missile submarine with the US Navy, during the first session of the Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group on Tuesday and after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol warned about “the end of the North Korean regime” while standing atop the submarine on Wednesday.

At the seventh session of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, which was held on Sept. 8, 2022, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, North Korea enacted a law about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal policy that stipulated five conditions for using nuclear weapons, including North Korea being attacked with nuclear weapons or another weapon of mass destruction or judging that such an attack is imminent.

Kang’s remark that the submarine port call “may fall under the conditions of the use of nuclear weapons” is expected to sharply raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Signs of a military confrontation have been brewing on the Korean Peninsula in recent days after North Korea’s launch of the Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, China and Russia’s joint military exercises in the East Sea, and the US nuclear-capable submarine’s port call in Busan.

South Korea and the US warned during the first session of their Nuclear Consultative Group at the presidential office in Yongsan on Tuesday that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the US or an ally would lead to the end of the North Korean regime.

By Kwon Hyuk-chul, staff reporter

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