South Korea and the United States launched a joint naval exercise involving a U.S. nuclear submarine today, following a weekend of ratcheting nuclear tension on the Korean peninsula. The submarine is capable of striking targets anywhere in the DPRK with cruise both nuclear and kinetic cruise missiles.

While South Korean military officials stressed the drill had been scheduled well before North Korea threatened to detonate a third nuclear device, Pyongyang’s Korean Central Broadcasting Station this weekend described the joint marine exercises as the work of “U.S. imperialists and South Korean warmongers”.

The nuclear-powered submarine USS San Francisco is joined by the Aegis