North Korea rips US aircraft carrier's visit to South Korea, warns of 'catastrophic circumstances'

North Korea on Friday warned of “catastrophic circumstances” after an American aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Thursday.

The statement comes after the USS Ronald Reagan and its battle group docked at the South Korean port of Busan. 

The deployment is part of a pledge with South Korea to increase “regular visibility” of U.S. military assets in the region after North Korea has increased its missile tests in recent months. 

The statement also comes amid increasing concerns about possible attempts by North Korea to negotiate an arms deal with Russia. The leaders of the two countries met last month. 

The North Korean state news agency (KCNA) called the arrival of the USS Ronald Reagan “an undisguised military provocation” and reiterated its increasingly common accusation that the United States was tempting nuclear war.

“It is an undisguised military provocation driving the situation to the irrevocable catastrophic circumstances that the U.S. persists in introducing various nuclear strategic assets into the Korean peninsula where a possibility of constant military collision exists and the danger of outbreak of a nuclear war is rampant,” the KCNA report read.

The news agency reiterated North Korea’s threat that it would deploy nuclear weapons if deemed necessary, writing that the state’s “doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons” allows for the state to execute “necessary action procedures in case a nuclear attack is launched against it or it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent.”