Two US Air Force B-1B bombers (centre), two US Air Force F-16 fighter jets (right and bottom), two South Korean Air Force F-15K fighter jets (top centre) and two Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets (bottom centre) flying in formation in the eastern airspace of the South Korean southern island of Jeju during a joint air drill. - AFP
SEOUL: The United States flew long-range bombers for joint drills with South Korea and Japan on Wednesday (Dec 20) in a show of force against North Korea, days after the North performed its first intercontinental ballistic missile test in five months.
The trilateral training off South Korea’s southern island of Jeju was meant to strengthen the countries’ joint response against North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
The exercise involved B-1B bombers and South Korean and Japanese fighter jets, the statement said. It said the B-1Bs' flyover is the 13th time that a US bomber has been temporarily deployed near and over the Korean Peninsula this year.
A B-1B is capable of carrying a large conventional weapons payload. North Korean has previously called the bomber's deployment a proof of US hostility and had reacted with missile tests.
North Korea on Monday launched a Hwasong-18 ICBM into the sea in a drill it said was meant as a warning over the US and South Korea’s confrontational steps. North Korea cited a recent US-South Korean meeting to discuss their nuclear deterrence plans.
The US, South Korea and Japan slammed the launch as a provocation, noting it violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions that ban any ballistic activities by the North.
The Hwasong-18, a solid-fuelled missile, is the North’s newest and most advanced ICBM. Its built-in solid propellant makes launches harder to detect than liquid-fueled missiles, which must be fuelled for liftoffs. Monday’s launch is the Hwasong-18’s third firing this year.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said the launch showed how North Korea could respond if the United States were to make "a wrong decision against it.” But many foreign experts say the North still has technological obstacles to overcome to possess functioning nuclear-armed ICBM that can hit the continental US.
This year alone, North Korea has conducted about 100 ballistic missile tests in what outside experts call a bid to modernise its nuclear arsenal and win greater US concessions.
In response, the US and South Korea expanded their military drills, strengthened security cooperation with Japan and increased the temporary deployment of powerful US military assets such as bombers and nuclear-powered submarines in South Korea.
Despite its torrid run of ballistic missile tests, North Korea has avoided new international sanctions as China and Russia, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, stymied any council responses to the North’s testing activities.
In an emergency UN Security Council meeting Tuesday over the North’s ICBM launch, North Korean and Russian diplomats clashed with US, South Korean and other diplomats. - AP
