North Korea will not hesitate to respond with nuclear weapons if it is itself “provoked” in this way, its leader Kim Jong Un said, according to comments reported by state media on Thursday.
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Washington, Seoul and Tokyo responded immediately in a joint statement, calling on Pyongyang to “stop carrying out new provocations and accept (their) call to begin a substantive dialogue without preconditions.”
At a meeting between American and South Korean officials late last week, Washington reaffirmed its “unwavering commitment” to Seoul by relying on its deterrent power, including nuclear power.
“Any nuclear attack” by Pyongyang on the US or its allies would mean the “end of the North Korean regime,” Washington warned at the time.
An American nuclear submarine, the USS Missouri, also arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Sunday.
Pyongyang responded the next day with a test fire of its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the most powerful in its arsenal and likely capable of reaching all of American territory – a clear warning to Washington.
On Tuesday, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo activated a real-time data-sharing system on North Korean missile launches, and forces from the three allied countries conducted joint exercises on Wednesday, including American bombers.
In a separate statement on Thursday, Kim Jong Un's influential sister Kim Yo Jong condemned the United Nations Security Council's decision to debate the recent launch of North Korea's Hwasong-18 missile, saying the test was an expression of innate Pyongyang's right to self-defense.
“The frequent appearance of American nuclear weapons” in South Korea “clearly targets the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and is the main cause of the escalation of the regional situation,” Kim Yo Jong thundered again, using the official name North Korea.