A US nuclear-powered submarine arrives in South Korea, days after a US nuclear-armed submarine made port in the country for the first time in four decades.
The USS Annapolis is not nuclear-armed. The vessel had also joined trilateral anti-submarine exercises with South Korea and Japan last September in waters off the Korean peninsula. Pyongyang is yet to respond to the submarine’s arrival. But it launched ballistic and cruise missiles last week, in reaction to the earlier visit by the nuclear-armed USS Kentucky to South Korea. North Korea has warned that the stationing of nuclear strategic assets could lead to Pyongyang use its nuclear weapons.