US flexes military muscle for Kim

– The US flew four stealth fighter jets and two bombers over the Korean peninsula yesterday in a show of force after North Korea’s latest nuclear and missile tests, South Korea’s defence ministry said.

Four F-35B stealth fighters and two B-1B bombers flew over the peninsula to “demonstrate the deterrence capability of the US-South Korea alliance against North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats”, the ministry said.

They were the first flights since

Seoul

the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on September 3 and staged an intermediate-range missile test over Japan last Friday.

The US jets few alongside four South Korean F-15K jet fighters as part of “routine” training, the statement said, adding that the allies would continue such exercises to “improve their joint operation capabilities against contingencies”.

The US is ramping up pressure on the North, with its ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warning that Pyongyang would be “destroyed” if it refused to end its “reckless” weapons drive.

The subject is set to dominate US President Donald Trump’s address to the UN General Assembly and his meetings with South Korean and Japanese leaders this week.

Tensions flared again when Kim Jong-un’s regime tested what it termed a hydrogen bomb many times more powerful than its previous device. – AFP