What the arrival of USS Kentucky means

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday toured the USS Kentucky, currently docking at Busan Harbor. The 18,000-ton Ohio-class nuclear submarine is one of the three pillars of U.S. strategic assets, together with strategic bombers and Trident ICBMs. The nuclear-powered submarine can conduct undersea operations without refueling until food for its crew runs out.

The USS Kentucky can deal a fatal blow to the enemy after stealthily surviving until the last minute. The sub can carry 20 to 24 Trident II nuclear missiles with a shooting range of up to 12,000 kilometers (7,450 miles). Their destructive power amounts to 1,000 times Little Body, the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped over Hiroshima during World War II.

South Korea and the U.S. exposed the arrival of the strategic submarine and the president’s visit to demonstrate their determination to deter against North Korea’s military provocations after the first meeting of the Nuclear Consultative Group (NCG). The two allies revealed the arrival of the sub for the first time in 42 years to mitigate security concerns of South Koreans.

The move affirms a stern warning against North Korea’s possible provocations, as manifested in the Washington Declaration in April. The North’s firing of two suspected short-range ballistic missiles at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday reflects its growing agitation about the arrival of the sub.

Whenever North Korea ratcheted up tensions, South Koreans call for the development of nuclear weapons on their own or the deployment of a U.S. strategic submarine around the Korean Peninsula on a permanent or rotational basis. In that sense, the port calling of USS Kentucky can help reassure South Koreans who demand concrete actions from the U.S.

We must live under the constant nuclear threat from North Korea. The arrival of the nuclear sub must not be temporary. Dialogue with the North could help dissuade the recalcitrant state from nuclear attacks, but it should be backed by a reliable U.S. nuclear umbrella.

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan are reportedly fixing a date, place and agenda items for their tripartite security summit in August. Japan already proposed a summit with North Korea, and the U.S. and North Korea will likely have a meeting, direct or indirect, over the issue of a USFK soldier crossing the border into North Korea. Regardless of the defection, the three countries must show a concerted voice and action over the North’s nuclear threat and prepare effective countermeasures.