SEOUL, July 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea warned on Sunday that North Korea will face the end of its regime if it attempts to use nuclear weapons.
"We sternly warn that there is no scenario in which North Korea's regime will survive after using nuclear weapons," Seoul's defense ministry said in a statement.
It was released in response to a statement by the North Korean defense ministry from the previous day. After South Korea and the United States adopted "Guidelines for Nuclear Deterrence and Nuclear Operations on the Korean Peninsula" in Washington on Thursday, North Korea condemned it as a "reckless provocative act."
North Korea also threatened that Seoul and Washington will pay "an unimaginably harsh price."
Commending the signing of the guidelines, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden warned any North Korean nuclear attack against South Korea will be met with a "swift, overwhelming and decisive" response.
The allies' guidelines are expected to expand the assignment of U.S. strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula by increasing the frequency and level of their deployment during both wartime and peacetime.
The South's defense ministry said it was "self-contradictory" on North Korea's part to condemn Seoul and Washington for formulating joint nuclear deterrence guidelines, when it is Pyongyang that threatens the use of nuclear weapons.
"Without North Korean nuclear threats in the first place, those joint guidelines would not have been necessary," the ministry added. "This is a fair step taken by the South Korea-U.S. alliance in the face of the improving North Korean nuclear capabilities and its blatant nuclear threats."
The ministry also blamed the rising tension on the Korean Peninsula on the North Korean regime and noted, "Despite opposition from the international community and sufferings of North Korean people, the regime has continued on with its illegal nuclear missile development."
The ministry issued a similar warning in April after North Korea said it had conducted rocket drills simulating a nuclear counterattack.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) and U.S. President Joe Biden shake hands during their meeting held on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 2024. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
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