Kang Jin Song, an international affairs analyst of the DPRK, released the following article "Deployment of U.S. strategic nuclear assets is malignant cause of vicious cycle of escalating tensions on Korean peninsula" on Saturday:

The nuclear war exercises racket of the U.S. and its followers gravely threatening the security of the sacred DPRK and all the Korean people pushes the situation on the Korean peninsula and its vicinity to the brink of explosion.

The U.S. brought its nuclear carrier Carl Vinson and nuclear-powered submarine Santa Fe to its Pusan operation base and Jeju naval base in the region of south Korean puppets one after another on November 21 and 22. It launched tripartite maritime exercises with Japan and the south Korean puppet forces in open waters near Jeju Island on November 26.

During the exercises involving the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson, Aegis destroyers and combat forces of the U.S. navy, the Japanese Maritime "Self-Defense Force" and the south Korean puppet navy, the enemies stirred up extreme fever for a nuclear war against the DPRK, staging anti-air drill and maritime mobile drill in the situation simulating "north Korea’s missile and aircraft provocations".

The enemies seek to cover up their aggressive nature at any cost, insisting that the exercises, which pushed the acute military confrontation on the Korean peninsula region, the world’s worst flashpoint, to the brink of a dangerous nuclear conflict, were aimed to cope with the "situation where north Korea’s nuclear and missile threat is escalating".

But the ground, maritime, air and underwater traces, left by the U.S. strategic nuclear assets deployed for a black-hearted purpose, and the joint military exercises staged against the DPRK all the year round, led by the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces, indicate who is behind the ever-escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula.

This year alone, the U.S. deployed its strategic nuclear submarine near the Korean peninsula for the first time in 40-odd years and orchestrated the first ever landing of its nuclear strategic bomber on the region of south Korean puppets, continuing to renew the records of deployment of its nuclear war assets including nuclear carrier on the Korean peninsula.

According to data available, the U.S. deployed the strategic nuclear submarine Kentucky equipped with 80 nuclear warheads and nuclear-powered submarines Springfield, Michigan, Annapolis and Santa Fe one after another in the Korean peninsula region this year. It also deployed there such nuclear strategic bombers as B-1Bs and B-52Hs 22 times.

The U.S. nuclear carrier strike groups led by Nimitz, Ronald Reagan, etc., which carry the forces huge enough to carry out a full-scale war, made their appearances in the waters off the Korean peninsula three times.

The number of large-scale joint military drills, including Freedom Shield joint military exercises, Ssangyong joint landing drill and "combined joint fire annihilation drill", staged by the U.S. in and around the Korean peninsula with Japan and the south Korean puppet forces in a bilateral and multilateral way as of now since the outset of this year, runs to over 60.

At present, U.S. nuclear strategic assets are deployed once every ten days and one warring side’s nuclear war drills precisely targeting the other side are staged once every five days in the area of the Korean peninsula. There is no such place on this planet.

The U.S. deployment of nuclear strategic assets and the anti-DPRK nuclear war drills led by the U.S. imperialist aggressor forces are escalating to the degree giving such mistaken impression that the base and homeport of U.S. nuclear strategic assets were shifted from Anderson Air Force Base on Guam and Yokosuka Port of Japan to the area of the Korean peninsula. This is damning evidence proving that the U.S. is the arch culprit of ever-escalating tensions on the peninsula.

Nevertheless, the U.S. has misled public opinion, always disguising itself as "victim" of escalating tension on the Korean peninsula. Not content with this, it deliberately linked the recent U.S.-Japan-puppet south Korea joint naval exercises with the DPRK’s reconnaissance satellite launch, while crying out for someone’s "provocation" and "threat" like a guilty party filing the suit first. This is the height of impudence never to be understood by anyone.

If a belligerent side brings huge nuclear war assets near the boundary with the other side in the world’s biggest hotspot, and if the former is the undoubted worst-ever war state, it is an inevitable option and a very natural exercise of the right to self-defence for the latter to opt for the possession of reconnaissance capability to monitor and grasp the nature of the actions of the hostile forces.

The DPRK accelerates its drive for possessing reconnaissance satellites, instead of communication satellite, meteorological satellite or prospector satellite, after setting it as the major target, while exercising its right to space exploration, universal right of a sovereign state recognized by international law. This is directly related to the moves of the U.S. destroying stability of the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity.

If satellite launch, an internal affair of a sovereign state, should be questioned, the U.S., the world’s biggest satellite possessor, will have to stand in the dock of the UNSC for frantically monitoring other countries with its countless spy satellites and intelligence assets above the Korean peninsula and its vicinity.

That’s why the fair international community, including those countries around the Korean peninsula, is becoming increasingly vocal unanimously urging the U.S. to withdraw its pressure policy such as joint military exercises and deployment of nuclear strategic assets as regards the present military and political situation in the region where vicious cycle is repeated.

The U.S. should reflect on its sinister behavior shown in front of other’s gate before impudently interfering in the exercise of the legitimate right to self-defence of a sovereign state and think seriously about the consequences to be entailed by it.

The biggest hotspot in the world is not an abstract expression. The Korean peninsula and its vicinity are the biggest danger zone in the world where the military conditions for the first ever outbreak of a thermonuclear war are fully mature in actuality.

Under the present international military situation, in which armed conflicts and bloodshed break out frequently in the hotspots across the world in recent years, due to the ever-escalating U.S. hegemonic military policy, there is no guarantee that the Korean peninsula will not become the next war theatre.

Given that hostility among the forces around the Korean peninsula is worsening, the U.S. frantically deploys its nuclear strategic assets there, betraying morbid repugnancy toward the inviolable exercise of the right to self-defence of the DPRK. This is very dangerous as such moves may result in breaking the last psychological pillar of the responsible nuclear weapons state seeking to deter the outbreak of a war and restore stability in the region.

This is not imaginary concern but a stark reality which no one can deny.

In case an unexpected clash happens in the Northeast Asian region around the Korean peninsula, the U.S., which has continuously put pressure on the security space of the DPRK by escalating military threat and blackmail, will be held wholly accountable for the catastrophic situation.

Rodong Sinmun