North Korea denounced on Monday a plan by the United States to send a strategic nuclear submarine to South Korea, warning it "may incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict in practice." In a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, a spokesperson for the North Korean defense ministry said Washingtons plan - agreed to by the leaders of the US and South Korea during an April summit - would introduce US strategic nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula for the first time since 1981.

"This is a very dangerous situation as it will bring the regional military tension to a more critical state and may incite the worst crisis of nuclear conflict in practice," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson called the US plan to send a strategic nuclear submarine to the peninsula "the most undisguised nuclear blackmail against" North Korea.

North Korea "should show in the clearest way how it will take counteraction, in order to prevent the US from doing such reckless acts with ease," the spokesperson said.

Also, the spokesperson accused a US spy aircraft of intruding in its airspace recently, threatening that there is no guarantee such aircraft will not be shot down.

"In particular, a strategic reconnaissance plane of the US Air Force illegally intruded into the inviolable airspace of the DPRK over its East Sea tens of kilometers several times," the spokesperson said.

"There is no guarantee that such shocking accident as downing of the US Air Force strategic reconnaissance plane will not happen in the East Sea of Korea," the spokesperson said.

The US had pledged to send a nuclear-capable ballistic missile submarine to South Korea in the Washington Declaration issued by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and US President Joe Biden during their summit in Washington in April to further enhance the "regular visibility" of strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula.

Source: Qatar News Agency