North Korea’s Ministry of National Defense described the docking of a U.S. aircraft carrier in Busan as a dangerous venture and warned that it is open to all possibilities of deterrence demonstration.
North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang Il stated in a speech announced through the Korean Central News Agency on the afternoon of the 24th, “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea completely opens up all possibilities of overwhelming and new deterrence demonstrations against the provocative attempts of the U.S. and South Korea, who are extremely confrontational fanatics,” and strongly condemned them in the strongest possible investigative terms. “The U.S. should immediately stop risky attempts and exercise restraint,” he added.
He pointed out docking the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy’s 9th Carrier Strike Group, at the Busan Naval Operations Base on the morning of the 22nd.
According to Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder docked at the Busan base to participate in Freedom Edge, the first multidomain military exercise between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, scheduled for the end of this month. After completing the training, it plans to move to the Middle East region.
Kim criticized the U.S. for deploying a nuclear aircraft carrier, questioning the clarity of its purpose and target. He described the U.S. as inherently hostile and suspicious and accused it and its allies of slandering with distorted truths. He noted that this behavior disrupts the normal development of relations between friendly sovereign states and likened it to an epileptic condition, with the U.S. again acting dangerously ostentatiously.
This is seen as a show of force against the North Korea-Russia summit held in Pyongyang on the 19th.
Kim pointed out, “Those are just fragments of examples of why the regional situation is intensifying, such as precision-guided bomb drop training of the U.S. strategic bomber B-1B conducted on June 5th, the Guidelines on Nuclear Strategy Planning and Operation reviewed at the U.S.-Korea Nuclear Consultative Group meeting on the 10th, and the U.S.-Korea special combined air training conducted from the 17th to the 20th,” and criticized, “The U.S. playing a dangerous game of force demonstration in front of us is a very dangerous prank and adventure.”
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