▲ The nuclear-powered submarine USS Greeneville arrives at a naval base in the southeastern port city of Busan on Dec. 23, 2025. (Yonhap)

N Korea-US submarine

N. Korea says U.S. nuclear-powered sub's entry into S. Korea poses grave security threat

By Park Boram

SEOUL, Dec. 25 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Thursday denounced a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine's recent entry into South Korea, saying it poses a grave security threat to the Korean Peninsula.

The North's defense ministry issued the response in a statement dated the previous day, following the entry of the USS Greeneville, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, into a naval base in Busan, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Tuesday.

The port call was aimed at replenishing supplies and providing rest for crew members, according to South Korea's Navy.

"Recently, the U.S. is getting more undisguised in its attempt to permanently fix a grave nuclear instability element in the security environment of the DPRK," the defense ministry said, using the abbreviation for the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"The repeated emergence of the U.S. strategic asset ... constitutes a grave act of causing instability and escalating military tensions in the Korean peninsula and the region," the ministry noted.

The statement also referred to Washington's recent reaffirmation of "extended deterrence" for Seoul and its support for Seoul's plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, accusing the U.S. of nearing "the critical level" in its attempt to gain strategic advantage in the region by turning its military alliance with Seoul into a nuclear confrontation bloc sharing its nuclear weapons.

The ministry said the moves once again confirmed "the U.S. confrontational intention to cement the structure of a nuclear-to-nuclear collision with the DPRK," adding the regime remains unchanged in its "will to strongly propel the development of the defense capabilities" to defend itself.

"The U.S. nuclear threat that persists in the vicinity of our state is pushing us to securing earlier the strategic retaliatory capability for wiping out such threatening entities within the scope of our maritime sovereignty," the ministry also said, warning of "countermeasures corresponding to the U.S. nuclear muscle flexing."

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