North Korea lashed out Friday at the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier
battle group in South Korea, calling it a provocation and again raising the
specter of using nuclear weapons to defend itself. Emboldened by its advancing
nuclear arsenal, North Korea has increasingly issued threats to use such
weapons preemptively. But the North is still outgunned by U.S. and South Korean
forces, and experts say it is unlikely to use its nukes first, though it will
continue to upgrade those arms without returning to diplomacy for the time
being.

The North's latest nuclear threat came a day after the USS Ronald Reagan and
its battle group arrived at South Korea's southeastern port of Busan, following
a U.S.-South Korean-Japanese naval exercise in international waters earlier
this week. South Korean defense officials said the carrier is to be docked at
Busan for five days as part of an agreement to increase the temporary
deployments of powerful U.S. military assets in response to the North's growing
nuclear program.

On Friday, the North's official Korean Central News Agency called the
aircraft carrier's arrival "an undisguised military provocation" that
proves a U.S. plan to attack North Korea is being realized. It threatened to
respond in line with its escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the
preemptive use of nuclear weapons.

"The (North Korean) doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons already
opened to the public allows the execution of necessary action procedures in
case a nuclear attack is launched against it or it is judged that the use of
nuclear weapons against it is imminent," the KCNA dispatch said. North
Korea's "most powerful and rapid first strike will be given to the
'extended deterrence' means, used by the U.S. to hallucinate its followers, and
the bases of evil in the Korean peninsula and its vicinity," KCNA added.
North Korea has argued it was forced to develop nuclear weapons to cope with
what it calls the U.S. and South Korean plots to invade. It has often made
furious responses to the deployment of U.S. strategic assets like aircraft
carriers, long-range bombers, and nuclear-powered submarines as well as U.S.
joint training exercises with South Korean forces.

Many experts say North Korea heightens tensions with its rivals to provide a
pretext for expanding its nuclear arsenal and then uses the arms as leverage to
wrest greater outside concessions. Since last year, North Korea has conducted
more than 100 missile tests in the name of responding to the expanded
U.S.-South Korean military drills. Washington and Seoul say their drills are
defensive in nature.

Last year, North Korea adopted a law that stipulates a broad range of
situations in which it can use nuclear weapons, including when it determines
that its leadership faces an imminent attack by hostile forces or when it needs
to prevent an unspecified catastrophic crisis to its people and government. The
U.S. and South Korean governments have repeatedly warned that any attempt by
North Korea to use nuclear weapons would result in the end of the North's
government led by Kim Jong Un. (News Source: Ap/NUB)