After Kim Yo-jong, the deputy director of the Workers' Party of North Korea, mentioned the possibility of military provocations in response to the arrival of the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in Busan, the Ministry of National Defense assessed on the 4th that it was 'a sophism aimed at building a justification for provocation.'
The Ministry of National Defense stated in a press release that 'Kim Yo-jong of North Korea criticizing the deployment of U.S. strategic assets for the fulfillment of extended deterrence commitments ahead of the 'Freedom Shield' U.S.-South Korea joint exercise is merely a sophism intended to justify nuclear and missile development and build a rationale for provocation.'
It further emphasized, 'North Korea's nuclear weapons are absolutely intolerable,' and that 'the only path to survival that North Korea can choose is to abandon its obsession and delusions about nuclear weapons.' It added, 'The military is thoroughly prepared for any provocations from North Korea based on a solid joint defense posture,' and 'if North Korea provokes based on the justified and defensive military activities of the U.S. and South Korea, we will overwhelmingly retaliate.'
Earlier, the USS Carl Vinson of the U.S. Navy arrived at the Busan operational base on the 2nd. The domestic arrival of the U.S. aircraft carrier is the first in about eight months since June of last year and the first since the inauguration of the Trump administration's second term.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo-jong stated in a discourse on the morning of the same day that the United States is 'habitually carrying out provocative acts that ignore safety concerns and worsen the situation' toward North Korea. Kim noted, 'If the United States continues to set records in military displays of force, we will have no choice but to set our own records in exercising strategic deterrence.'