TOKYO: North Korea has criticized Monday’s visit of a US nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea’s Busan naval base, calling it “an undeniable threat to our country’s security environment.”

A spokesman for the North’s Ministry of Defense released a statement on Tuesday and termed the US submarine’s visit “a concentrated expression of the unchanging madness of the US confrontation with Korea” that will “further intensify regional military tensions.”

The statement added: “We express our serious concern about the extremely dangerous hostile military actions of the United States, which could drive the region’s advanced military confrontation situation on the Korean Peninsula into an actual armed conflict.”

The North said it was issuing a “strong warning” for the US to stop any further destabilization or provocations, adding that the submarine’s appearance on the Korean Peninsula “clearly shows how legitimate the new nuclear capabilities and self-defense strengthening measures recently revealed by our head of state are and in which direction we must move forward.”

The North accused the United States or being domineering and resorting to “rule by force.” The North said it will face force with force and would use any means to protect its security interests.

The statement concluded: “The Republic’s armed forces, which are always faithful to their constitutional obligations to protect national security, will exercise their legitimate right without hesitation to take deterrent actions against the root causes that threaten the security environment of the region and punish provocateurs.”