The USS Michigan, an Ohio-class nuclear-powered guided missile submarine, arrives at a naval port of the Republic of Korea in the southeastern port city of Busan on June 16, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

SEOUL - A spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) condemned the US plan to send a strategic nuclear submarine to the Korean Peninsula in a press statement on Monday.

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The deployment of the US strategic nuclear submarine carrying nuclear warheads on the Korean Peninsula means that the US strategic nuclear weapons will appear on the peninsula for the first time since 1981, said the spokesman, quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

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The statement called the US attempt to introduce strategic nuclear weapons onto the Korean Peninsula "the most undisguised nuclear blackmail against the DPRK and its neighboring countries and a grave threat and challenge to the regional and global peace and security."

It urged the United States to stop at once all the provocative moves.