SEOUL, July 11. /TASS/. North Korea will take proportional countermeasures in case the United States’ and South Korea’s joint drills involve US "nuclear strategic assets," according to an article posted on the website of the North Korean foreign ministry’s website.
"If the large-scale joint military exercises are to be conducted defiantly on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity with nuclear strategic assets of the U.S. being involved, it will trigger off due countermeasures of ours. And this will, in turn, create a touch-and-go situation in which even a small conflict can be led to a nuclear war easily," Ri Ji Song, a researcher of Society for International Politics Study, wrote in his article.
The term "strategic assets" typically indicate aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
The article focuses on the United States’, South Korea’s and Japan’s "dangerous moves for military tie-ups." The author recalls the US Pacific Fleet commander’s visit to these two countries this June, saying that it "indicates that the U.S. is stepping up its preparatory work to introduce nuclear strategic assets to the Korean peninsula in its final stage in the name of "provision of extended deterrence.".