Communist North Korea threatened on Monday to shoot down U.S. Air Force planes in response to the docking of a nuclear-capable submarine in South Korea, the result of an agreement between leftist American President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, in April.
Seoul and Washington confirmed the arrival of the USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine, to the southern port city of Busan on June 15, an agreement that formed part of the Washington Declaration, a document published by both governments during Yoon’s visit to the American capital in April. The submarine’s presence was a form of deployment unseen since the 1980s and apparently an American response to growing anxiety about North Korea’s illicit nuclear program in South Korea, which has spawned high levels of support among citizens for Seoul to develop its own nuclear weapons independent of America.
