U.S. sends nuclear-capable bombers to Korea in response to North Korean missile launch
The U.S. has conducted military maneuvers with at least one B-1B strategic bomber and other military aircraft from both South Korea and Japan in response to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile on Saturday.
In the maneuvers conducted in coordination with Seoul South Korean F-35A and F-15K fighter jets and U.S. F-16 fighters escorted the bomber, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff reported, as quoted by the South Korean news agency Yonhap. The aircraft flew in formation over the Yellow Sea, the East Sea of Japan and the southern region of South Korea.
“The training has demonstrated on this occasion the combined defensive capability of South Korea and the United States and the overwhelming strength of the alliance, as well as the immediate deployment of expanded deterrence assets on the Korean Peninsula,” Seoul has stressed.
These maneuvers further demonstrate the “ironclad” U.S. support to the defense of the peninsula and its commitment to extended deterrence, a term used to refer to the threat of the use of all U.S. military force, including nuclear, to defend South Korea.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Ministry of Defense has also reported. joint maneuvers conducted with the United States. this Sunday. Specifically, Tokyo has mobilized three F-15 fighters escorting two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters over the Sea of Japan.
Japan has stressed that “Japan and the United States have reaffirmed their readiness to. respond and strengthen the deterrence of their alliance.” and stressed that “the security situation around Japan is becoming increasingly serious.”
The North Korean government confirmed on Saturday the launching of a intercontinental missile model Hwasong-15. activated in what the North Korean news agency KCNA has described as a “surprise test.”
The projectile, according to North Korea, was fired from Pyongyang’s airport and flew 989 kilometers for one hour “before impacting accurately in a defined area within the open waters of the East Sea,” referring to the Sea of Japan, in what is the first such missile launch in more than a month.
The launch was, according to KCNA, a “real test” of the ongoing efforts of North Korea’s “strategic nuclear force” to turn “its fatal nuclear counterattack capability against hostile forces into an irresistible force, as well as an assurance and clear proof of the sure reliability of its nuclear capability. deterrent.”
