US sends supersonic bombers over region
SEOUL: US bombers overflew the Korean peninsula on Thursday as part of an exercise with Japanese and South Korean warplanes, the US Air Force said, days before President Donald Trump arrives in the region for a trip set to be dominated by the nuclear-armed North.
Tensions are high over Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and atomic programmes, which in recent months have seen it test ICBMs and carry out its sixth nuclear blast.
Mr Trump’s visit will throw a spotlight on the issue, after the US President and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un traded insults and threats of war.
Flights by supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers in the area always infuriate North Korea, which condemned the drill as “blackmail” early yesterday.
Two B-1B aircraft took off from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, and were joined west of Japan by Japan Air Self-Defence Force fighters, the US Pacific Air Force said in a statement.
“The Lancers then transited overland to Korea to integrate with Republic of Korea fighters in the Yellow Sea,” the statement read, adding that the aircraft later returned “to their respective home stations.”
The exercise was part of the “continuous bomber presence” mission in the Pacific and “was not in response to any current event,” the statement said.
The operation follows an Oct 10 “show of force” in which two Lancers staged the first night-time joint aviation exercises with Japan and South Korea.
North Korea in July launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles apparently capable of reaching the US mainland — described by Mr Kim as a gift to “American ba****ds”. It followed up with two missiles that passed over Japan, and its sixth nuclear test, by far its most powerful yet.
Mr Trump has warned of “fire and fury” in response to Pyongyang’s threats, and derisively dubbed Mr Kim “Rocket Man”, who responded by calling him a “dotard”. The North’s KCNA news agency described the US president as “incurably mentally deranged”.
Yesterday Mr Trump was to set off for his Asian tour, which will include Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. But his message risks being undermined if increasingly aggressive North Korea stages a missile test.