ISTANBUL

A nuclear-powered US submarine reached South Korea on Friday, Seoul said.

It has been the first time since October 2017 that the submarine sailed to the Korean Peninsula.

The Ohio-class nuclear-powered guided missile submarine of the US Navy arrived at the southern port city of Busan, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Deployment of the nuclear-powered submarine was decided during the US-South Korea summit held in Washington in April.

Notably, its arrival at Busan came a day after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles that landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to local media reports.

The South Korean Defense Ministry said with the deployment of the US nuclear-powered submarine, the two navies “plan to strengthen their special warfare capability and interoperability to respond to North Korea's ever-increasing threat through combined special warfare training.”

The submarine’s visit to Korea is to “increase regular visibility of US strategic assets. It shows the overwhelming ability and posture of the ROK-US alliance to realize peace,” said Vice Admiral Kim Myung-soo, South Korean commander of naval operations.

ROK or Republic of Korea is the official name of South Korea.

Meanwhile, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said it has retrieved what is "believed" to be a sunken part of the North Korean space rocket from the Yellow Sea.

Pyongyang had attempted to launch a military reconnaissance satellite late last month but it failed and crashed into the sea.