PYONGYANG, June 22. /TASS/. The entire responsibility in the event of a crisis on the Korean Peninsula will rest with the United States, Kim Hyon Su, senior researcher of the Disarmament and Peace Institute of the North Korean (DPRK) Foreign Ministry, said in a statement, published by the Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Wednesday.
According to the DPRK political analyst, among the factors contributing to the escalation of tensions in the region is the arrival of the American nuclear submarine USS Mississippi at the South Korean port of Busan, Washington's decision to send to Asia for the first time a strike group led by the USS Ronald Reagan nuclear aircraft carrier. All these acts of provocation, said the analyst, are taking place at a time when the plan of a preemptive airstrike in order to "disable the nuclear facilities and strategic means of the DPRK" is openly discussed in the United States. They prove that Washington has not abandoned the intention to isolate and stifle DPRK within its military "scenario to bring down its social system."
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The current situation on the peninsula confirms "the importance of the policy approved by the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) for the parallel development of the economy and strengthening the nuclear deterrent," Kim Hyon Su said.
The North Korean Foreign Ministry said previously that the US decision to send to Busan the USS Mississippi submarine, equipped with cruise missiles, "creates a direct threat to the DPRK and the entire region." It accused the US of a "ceaseless introduction of strategic assets of various kinds to and around the Korean Peninsula" and "making the already unstable situation all the more uncontrollable." The ministry said the best way to avert a war "is to bolster the DPRK’s nuclear deterrence for self-defense in every way."
The North Korean statement says that the United States "has started preparations for implementing a plan to deliver a preemptive air strike against the DPRK nuclear facilities and forces" and the American nuclear submarines are constantly cruising in the area of the Korean Peninsula.
The Pearl Harbor-based Mississippi, one of the most advanced submarines in the world, is equipped with torpedoes and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Commissioned in 2012, it is more than 360-feet-long and has a displacement of about 7,000 tons.