Tensions on the Korean Peninsula took on an urgent dimension on Thursday after Pyongyang's state-run news agency threatened to use nuclear weapons in response to alleged provocations by the West.
A U.S. citizen crossed the border into North Korean territory/Reuters
A statement issued by the North Korean defense minister said that the increased U.S. activity in South Korea, which includes the arrival of aircraft carriers, bombers and missile submarines in the south, was sufficient grounds for a nuclear response.
This apparently stems from the fact that a U.S. nuclear submarine arrived in the South Korean city of Busan earlier this week, and also against the backdrop of a conference held by South Korea and the United States this week to coordinate nuclear warning issues with Kim Jong Un's authoritarian regime.
"The increasing visibility of strategic nuclear submarines and other strategic assets [of the West] meets the conditions under which nuclear weapons can be employed under North Korean law."
The statement added that "the stage in which there will be a military confrontation on the Korean Peninsula has arrived and is now a new reality."
The rhetorical escalation comes at a particularly sensitive time in another area as well, after earlier this week a U.S. soldier stationed in South Korea defected to its northern neighbor. Pyongyang has yet to comment on the incident.
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