The US believes its nuclear weapons are designed to “deter any form of strategic attack,” including conventional ones, the Pentagon warned in its new nuclear strategy released on Thursday, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“It includes the use of nuclear weapons, regardless of their power, and it includes very important strategic attacks using non-nuclear means,” a senior official of the US Department of Defense told the press, explaining that this new approach is designed to “complicate decision-making” by the adversary in the time when Russia accuses Ukraine of preparing to use the so-called “dirty bomb”.

“Russia has carried out aggression against Ukraine under a nuclear threat, irresponsible statements, nuclear exercises in previously unforeseen terms and lies about the potential use of weapons of mass destruction,” says the document, published for the first time simultaneously with the new US defense strategy.

Any nuclear strike by North Korea is the “end of the regime” of Kim Jong Un

As the U.S. anticipates an imminent North Korean nuclear test, the Pentagon is warning that a North Korean nuclear strike would mean the “end of the regime” of Kim Jong-un.

“Any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners would be unacceptable and would lead to the end of this regime,” the Pentagon said. “There is no scenario in which the Kim regime could use nuclear weapons and survive.”

“In the 2030s, the United States will face two major nuclear powers for the first time in its history”

The US Department of Defense, among other things, emphasizes that China has undertaken “ambitious efforts to expand, modernize and diversify its nuclear forces”, noting that Beijing “really wants to have at least 1,000 nuclear warheads by the end of the decade”. “.

But “Russia is the main rival of the US with the most diverse and combat-capable nuclear forces,” the document says.

Russia has 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and another 2,000 not deployed.

“Its modern and growing nuclear arsenal poses a long-term existential threat to the United States and our allies and partners,” the Defense Department added, stressing that “in the 2030s, the United States will for the first time in its history face two major nuclear powers (which will be) strategic competitors and potential adversaries”.

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