U.S., allies hold joint exercises

Stealth bombers fly over Korean Peninsula

The U.S. military flew stealth jets and bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Monday in joint exercises with South Korea and Japan, just three days after North Korea launched an intermediaterange ballistic missile over Japan.

The show of force came in response to Friday’s missile launch, which flew 2,300 miles from Pyongyang and landed in the ocean. the U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement.

The North’s missile launch was a protest against tough new sanction imposed last week by the United Nations Security Council after Pyongyang conducted its sixth, and most powerful, nuclear test on Sept. 3.

Monday’s flyovers involved four U.S. F-35B Lightning II jets and two B-1B Lancer bombers joining four South Korean F-15K fighter jets and four Japanese F-2 fighter jets.

The Lancer bombers came from the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the U.S. territory that North Korea has threatened.

The U.S. and South Korean aircraft “practiced their attack capabilities by releasing live weapons” at the South’s Pilsung Range training area. The U.S. aircraft and Japanese fighters also flew near Kyushu, the U.S. Pacific Command said.

Captions for photos that accompanied the statement said the mission demonstrated “the United States’ ironclad commitment to our allies in the face of aggressive and unlawful North Korean missile tests.”

While North Korea’s latest missile launch posed no threat to Guam, it was the longest such missile flight from the North and clearly showed that the island is within range of its weapons.

Guam is about 2,100 miles from Pyongyang.

North Korea state media on Saturday quoted leader Kim Jong Un as saying his country’s goal “is to establish the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about military option” for the North.

China’s Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, criticized the USA on Monday for demanding that Beijing put more pressure on North Korea to rein in its weapons programs.

“The so-called ‘China’s responsibility theory’ is essentially moral kidnapping,” People’s Daily said in a commentary. It also noted

The U.S. and South Korean aircraft “practiced their attack capabilities by releasing live weapons” at the South’s Pilsung Range training area.

U.S. Pacific Command

that sanctions should not harm “legitimate economic and trade exchanges between North Korea and the outside world.”

China accounts for about 90% of North Korea’s trade.

China’s foreign ministry said Monday that military threats by North Korea and the U.S. were counterproductive.

“Some related parties keep sending threatening messages both in words and deeds that include warnings of military actions to each other,” ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, the Associated Press reported. “These kinds of actions didn’t help solving the problem but further complicate the situation.”

He said the international community should implement the U.N. sanctions on North Korea.