North Korea warned that the arrival of the U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered submarine (SSN) USS Alexandria in Busan was a "blatant disregard for security concerns" and stated that it was "prepared to use any means."
According to the Korean Central News Agency on the 11th, a spokesperson for North Korea's defense ministry asserted in a statement released that the arrival of the USS Alexandria was a "concentrated expression of America's uncontrollable confrontation mania toward North Korea."
He said that they express "serious concern over the U.S.'s perilous hostile military actions that could lead the acute military confrontation situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula to an actual armed conflict" and strongly warned against acts of provocation that could cause further instability.
He emphasized that the reality suggests that "the response principle we have been upholding is that the hegemonic entity, the U.S., which blindly believes in domination through power, must be countered with commensurate force."
North Korea reacts sensitively to the deployment of key U.S. strategic assets in the Korean Peninsula and joint exercises with South Korea and continues to assert that U.S.-South Korea military activities are the main cause threatening peace on the Korean Peninsula. There are also observations that this creates tension coinciding with the inauguration of the Trump administration.
On the 9th, North Korea condemned the joint air drills involving U.S. Air Force B-1B strategic bombers and the South Korea-U.S.-Japan joint aerial exercises, calling them an "irresponsible action that escalates regional tension" and stating that they would "only bring about undesired results."
Meanwhile, the USS Alexandria docked at the Busan Operations Base of the Naval Operations Command in the southern district of Busan on the morning of the 10th. Commissioned in 1991, this submarine is making its first entry into the country, measuring 110m in length, 10m in width, and accommodating over 140 crew members.