N. Korea warns of stepped-up actions against arrival of US aircraft carrier in S. Korea
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Tuesday warned of a stepped-up action against the arrival of a US aircraft carrier in South Korea, claiming the US move justifies the North bolstering its nuclear forces.
Kim Yo-jong made the condemnation as the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class US aircraft carrier, arrived at a key naval base in the southeastern city of Busan on Sunday, in the US commitment to providing extended deterrence against North Korean threats.
She said the United States has been deploying its strategic assets into the Korean Peninsula at the "constant" level, denouncing the arrival of the US aircraft carrier as Washington's expression of its "most hostile and confrontational will" against the North, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
"The action-accompanied hostile policy toward the DPRK pursued by the US at present is offering sufficient justification for the DPRK to indefinitely bolster up its nuclear war deterrent," Kim said in a statement carried by the KCNA.
DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"The DPRK is also planning to carefully examine the option for increasing the actions threatening the security of the enemy at the strategic level," Kim warned.
She stressed if the US continues to renew its records in conducting military demonstrations against North Korea, her country will be "naturally compelled to renew its records in the exercise of strategic deterrence."
The latest arrival of the USS Carl Vinson marked the first such visit by a US aircraft carrier to South Korea since US President Donald Trump's return to the White House in January. The nuclear-powered vessel last visited South Korea in November 2023.
Its latest visit also came about eight months after the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier arrived in Busan in June last year to take part in the inaugural Freedom Edge multidomain exercise conducted among South Korea, the US and Japan. (Yonhap)
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