North Korea has threatened to attack a U.S. aircraft carrier that arrived in South Korea on Thursday.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency(KCNA) said on Friday that the North’s “most powerful and swift first strike” will be made against the U.S.’ extended deterrence means as well as its bases on the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas, implying an attack against the USS Ronald Reagan and U.S. bases.

The threat came a day after the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered carrier and its strike group came to South Korea’s southern port city Busan after participating in a trilateral military exercise with South Korean and Japanese warships in international waters off Jeju Island earlier this week.

The KCNA denounced the United States' continued deployment of various nuclear strategic assets on the Korean Peninsula as a blatant military provocation that could create irrevocable, catastrophic circumstances.

It added that the carrier's visit showed that a U.S. scheme to attack the regime with nuclear weapons had reached "the most serious phase" as the outbreak of a nuclear war comes to the fore.

The Ronald Reagan will stay in South Korea until Monday.