North Korea has threatened to bolster its nuclear deterrence against the United States after an American submarine armed with a dozen missiles visited South Korea.
Kim Yo Jong, the outspoken sister of North Korea‘s leader Kim Jong Un, on Tuesday accused the visit by USS Vermont—a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine—of threatening the security of the North, claiming it was part of Washington’s nuclear threat and blackmail on Pyongyang.
“No matter how the U.S. may demonstrate its ‘overwhelming capability’ by rising to the surface even a submarine whose mission is to mount a final nuclear strike under the sea, nothing will change,” Kim said, according to the Korean Central News Agency. She also claimed all ports and military bases in South Korea were not safe.
The Vermont on Monday arrived at a naval base in Busan, a major port city situated on the southeastern coast of South Korea, for replenishing supplies and providing rest for its crew members after conducting operations in the region, the South’s navy said.
U.S. Navy nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Vermont enters a naval base in Busan, South Korea, on September 23. Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claimed its arrival was a “nuclear threat and blackmail” aimed at her nation.
Gang Sun-bae/Yonhap via AP
Both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Forces Korea refused to disclose how long the submarine would dock in South Korea due to operational security.
The vessel’s visit came as tensions on the Korean Peninsula remain heightened. The nuclear-capable North has continued to launch ballistic missiles and release trash-carrying balloons to its southern neighbor, which were denounced by both the South and the U.S.
The Vermont is a 7,800-ton Virginia-class fast-attack submarine, capable of firing up to 25 torpedoes for sinking hostile ships and submarines from its four horizontal torpedo tubes, as well as 12 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles from vertical launch tubes at its bow.
The Tomahawk is the primary weapon of the U.S. Navy for conducting long-range strikes. It has a flight range of 1,000 miles and is capable of switching targets while in flight. The distance between Busan naval base and North Korea’s capital Pyongyang is about 329 miles.
North Korea’s “nuclear war deterrent” would be “bolstered up both in quality and quantity continuously and limitlessly as the security of the state is constantly exposed to the U.S. nuclear threat and blackmail,” Kim Yo Jong claimed. She also stressed that the American submarines can never be an “object of fear.”
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that North Korea may possess around 50 nuclear warheads and have enough fissile material to produce a total of up to 90 warheads. The country has also conducted six nuclear explosive tests from 2006 to 2017.
Without providing any evidence to support her statement, the North Korean leader’s sister said the country’s aerospace reconnaissance agency detected the Vermont‘s arrival. North Korea claimed it successfully launched a spy satellite into orbit in November last year.
Naval vessels powered by nuclear reactors, such as submarines and aircraft carriers, are considered the American strategic assets that support the extended deterrence provided to South Korea, one of Washington’s treaty allies in Northeastern Asia besides Japan.
Extended deterrence, also known as providing a “nuclear umbrella,” is a commitment to deter and to respond potential nuclear and non-nuclear scenarios in defense of allies.
This was the first visit by the Vermont, commissioned in 2020 and homeported in Hawaii since last year, to South Korea.
U.S. Navy submarines have been visiting South Korea regularly, including at least three times last year, according to U.S. military newspaper Stars and Stripes. USS Kentucky, an Ohio-class submarine armed with nuclear ballistic missiles, visited Busan in July 2023.
The Navy told the newspaper that the Vermont‘s visit reflected its commitment to the region and complemented the “many exercises, training, operations and other military cooperation activities.”
Washington’s commitment to extended deterrence to Seoul was backed by the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a joint statement with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol that was released in July.
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