Photo : YONHAP News
North Korea protested the arrival of a nuclear-powered U.S. submarine in South Korea earlier this week, pledging to “continuously and limitlessly” bolster the regime’s nuclear deterrent against what it called U.S. nuclear threats.
In a statement Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, said the arrival on Monday of the 78-hundred-ton USS Vermont is proof that the U.S. desires to show off its strength and enjoy its hegemonic privilege at any cost.
The USS Vermont entered a major naval base in Busan on Monday to replenish supplies and provide rest for its crew.
Kim Yo-jong said Washington’s display of its “overwhelming capability” will change nothing, threatening to remind the U.S. that no port or naval base on the Korean Peninsula is safe for American forces.
In an apparent attempt to flaunt the North’s surveillance capabilities, Kim said the country’s Aerospace Reconnaissance Agency had detected the submarine’s arrival and reported it.