This picture taken on Oct 12, 2023 shows the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arriving at a South Korean naval base in the southern port city of Busan. - AFP
SEOUL (Reuters): North Korea denounced on Friday (Oct 13) a US aircraft carrier's visit to South Korea, calling it a provocation that could bring "irrevocable, catastrophic circumstances".
The nuclear-powered Ronald Reagan and its strike group arrived in the South Korean port of Busan on Thursday for a five-day visit, after allied exercises in nearby waters, in a show of force against North Korea.
The aircraft carrier's visit showed that a US scheme for a nuclear attack on North Korea had reached "the most serious phase", North Korea's official KCNA news agency said, adding this meant "the outbreak of a nuclear war comes to the fore".
"It is an undisguised military provocation driving the situation to irrevocable catastrophic circumstances," KCNA said in a commentary.
US and South Korean forces have been staging intensified military exercises this year, involving US aircraft carriers, submarines and advanced bombers, in order, they say, to better respond to evolving North Korean nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea calls the drills a rehearsal for invasion.
KCNA said that in case of an imminent nuclear attack, North Korea would take "necessary action", as enshrined in its nuclear doctrine, to "thoroughly deter and repel US and its stooges' frantic moves to ignite a nuclear war".
Our "most powerful and rapid first strike will be given to the 'extended deterrence' means, used by the US to hallucinate its followers, and the bases of evil in the Korean peninsula and its vicinity," KCNA said.
The term "extended deterrence" means the ability of the US military, particularly its nuclear forces, to deter attacks on allies.
Diplomatic officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea will discuss North Korean matters in a meeting in the Indonesian capital on Tuesday, Japan's foreign ministry said.
Japan has regularly participated in air and naval exercises with the allies.
