Yonhap News Agency reported on Friday. The warning came after Pyongyang had said the deployment of a US nuclear-capable submarine and other strategic assets here could meet the conditions for its use of nuclear arms.
Seoul's defense ministry renewed the warning after Pyongyang's Defence Minister Kang Sun-nam issued a sharp-tongued statement the previous day, criticizing the arrival of the USS Kentucky, an 18,750-ton Ohio-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), in South Korea and the inaugural meeting of the South Korea-US Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG) this week, ANI reported citing Yonhap news agency. Seoul ministry said, “In the event of any North Korean nuclear attack against the South Korea-US alliance, it will face an immediate, overwhelming and decisive response from the alliance, and (we) strongly warn again that through this, (the attack) will result in the end of the North Korean regime." The USS Kentucky arrived in the southeastern port city of Busan on Tuesday which coincided with the first NCG session aimed at strengthening the credibility of the extended deterrence commitment by the US to use the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, to defend its ally. The defense ministry defended the NCG gathering and the SSBN's deployment as a "rightful" defensive measure against North Korea's “continued nuclear and missile threats", dismissing the North's claim that they posed a nuclear threat to the recalcitrant country, as per ANI reports. It also said Pyongyang's nuclear program and missile provocations are "clear" violations of UN Security Council resolutions and "illicit activities," noting the country is the "only" one that repeats threats of a nuclear attack against the South
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