SEOUL, December 25. /TASS/. The North Korean Ministry of National Defense vowed a symmetrical response to the arrival of a US nuclear-powered submarine at a naval operations base in South Korea’s Busan earlier this week, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
"We will consider countermeasures corresponding to the US nuclear muscle flexing, according to the doctrine of mutual containment between nuclear weapons states, and the way and time of their implementation will be chosen on the principle of symmetry and asymmetry," KCNA quoted the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s top brass as saying. The North Korean military noted that a US submarine entered the Busan naval port on December 23 "under the pretext of its crew members’ rest and replenishment of munitions."
The DPRK’s defense ministry denounced the US submarine's port call in Busan as a "grave act of causing instability and escalating military tensions in the Korean peninsula and the region."
"Nothing will change no matter how frequently the US brings its nuclear submarines to highlight the visibility of its nuclear attack forces. The US nuclear threat that persists in the vicinity of our state is pushing us to securing earlier the strategic retaliatory capability for wiping out such threatening entities within the scope of our maritime sovereignty," the North Korean military warned.
The USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine, entered the port of Busan to replenish supplies and provide rest for the crew on Tuesday, Yonhap reported earlier.