In an escalating war of words, North Korea has vowed to down any US spy planes violating its airspace. This came as Pyongyang denounced Washington's plans to station a nuclear missile submarine near the Korean Peninsula.
The spokesperson for North Korea's Ministry of Defense stated on Monday that Washington had "intensified its spy activities more than war-time levels" by conducting "provocative" reconnaissance flights over the course of eight consecutive days this month. He also noted multiple instances of a US reconnaissance plane breaching North Korea's airspace over the East Sea.
The Central Korean News Agency quoted the spokesperson as saying, "There's no guarantee that an incident causing a shock like the downing of a US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane over the East Sea of Korea wouldn't happen."
The spokesperson further alluded to past incidents where Pyongyang had downed American planes, warning that the US would pay a hefty price for its frenzied aerial espionage.
The statement also condemned the projected deployment of US strategic nuclear assets in the Korean Peninsula, describing it as the "most blatant nuclear blackmail" against North Korea. This act, it added, posed a grave threat to regional and global security.
The statement went on to claim that "the current situation clearly proves that the situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the threshold of a nuclear conflict due to the US's provocative military activities."
Earlier in April, Washington had announced its intention to dispatch a nuclear-armed ballistic submarine on a visit to a South Korean port, the first such occurrence in decades. However, no specific timeline was provided for this move.
North Korea has conducted multiple missile launches this year in defiance of sanctions, including testing its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile. In May, it also attempted to deploy a military spy satellite into orbit.
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