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North Korea threatens response with 'corresponding strength' after U.S. nuclear submarine arrives in Busan
2025-02-14

North Korea on Tuesday denounced the recent arrival of a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine in Busan, warning that it would respond with "corresponding strength" against what it views as U.S. military intimidation.
Experts suggest that Pyongyang’s latest salvo serves a dual purpose — reinforcing the justification for its continued nuclear weapons development, an agenda frequently emphasized by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, while also positioning U.S. strategic asset deployments and joint military drills as bargaining chips in potential talks with Washington.
In an English-language press statement released Tuesday, a spokesperson for North Korea's Defense Ministry called this year's first overt emergence of a U.S. nuclear submarine in the Korean Peninsula "a clear expression of the U.S. invariable hysteria for confrontation with the DPRK."
DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We … strongly warn that the U.S. should stop provocations stirring up the instability any longer," the statement read. "To thoroughly contain only with corresponding strength the U.S., the hegemonic entity believing blindly in domination by strength is the answer the reality is giving and the responding principle we have already maintained."
The North also hinted at future military actions, stating, "We will make clearer our choice of action and mode of counteraction against our rivals."
The USS Alexandria, a Los Angeles-class attack submarine with a displacement of 6,900 tons, arrived at a naval base in Busan on Monday to replenish supplies and allow crew members to rest, the Korean Navy said. Its arrival comes about three months after the USS Columbia, another Los Angeles-class submarine, visited the southeastern naval base for similar purposes in November.
North Korea has consistently expressed strong opposition to the deployment of U.S. strategic assets in the region, as well as South Korea-U.S. joint military drills, which it claims are direct threats to regional peace.
A South Korean Unification Ministry official noted that Pyongyang has routinely issued statements condemning U.S. military actions since the April 2023 Washington Declaration, in which Washington reaffirmed its commitment to extended deterrence against North Korea by deploying U.S. strategic assets.
"Today's statement follows that pattern," the official told reporters Tuesday.
On Sunday, North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) published a commentary slamming recent joint South Korea-U.S.-Japan and South Korea-U.S. military drills involving the strategic U.S. B-1B bomber. The KCNA condemned the exercises as "irresponsible acts of escalating the regional tension" and warned they would lead to "undesired consequences."
Some analysts believe North Korea’s latest warning is part of a broader strategy to observe the response of the newly inaugurated Donald Trump administration, which has recently signaled interest in renewing dialogue with Pyongyang.
"Pyongyang is sending a clear message to the Trump administration that if it does not readjust its hostile policy, it will take an ultra-hardline response," said Prof. Lim Eul-chul at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. "At the same time, North Korea is using this situation to justify its ongoing efforts to strengthen its self-defensive nuclear force."
"Pyongyang will closely monitor the deployment frequency of U.S. strategic assets, long-range precision strike capabilities and South Korea-U.S. combined exercises to gauge Washington’s North Korea policy," said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. "This latest statement serves both as a warning against the deployment of U.S. strategic assets and as an indication of the conditions Pyongyang might set for future U.S.-North Korea dialogue."

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