In addition to the B-52 bomber, US and South Korean defense authorities were continuing discussion on further deployment of ” strategic assets”, South Korea’s defense ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok said at a press briefing on Monday.
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North Korea said it set off a hydrogen bomb last Wednesday, its fourth nuclear test since 2006, angering China, the North’s main ally, and the United States, which said it doubted the device was a hydrogen bomb.
General Curtis Scaparrotti, the head of U.S. forces in South Korea, gave the order during a visit to the Osan Air Base, operated jointly by the United States and South Korea, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of the inter-Korean border.
Kim has said the nuclear program is defensive and created to prevent a US-led invasion.
Washington and Pyongyang have been driven to the brink of war after the secretive state conducted its first ever hydrogen bomb test before declaring it is on the verge of war with South Korea just days later.
Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader, has described last week’s nuclear test as a hydrogen bomb, and self-defensive measure against US threats of a nuclear war.
Reuters reports that while China publicly backs United Nations’ sanctions on the pariah state, it is believed to secretly provide the country with large amounts of aid.
An analysis by the U.S. Geological Survey fixed the coordinates of the bomb test in northeastern North Korea, an isolated and heavily forested area about 6,000 feet in elevation.
South Korea also resumed anti-North propaganda broadcasts using loudspeakers along the border, a tactic that the North considers insulting. The tone of Kim’s comments, which sought to glorify him and justify the test, is typical of state media propaganda. He also sought to link the purported success of the nuclear test to a ruling Workers’ Party convention in May, the party’s first since 1980.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a celebratory photo session in the wake of the country’s purported H-bomb test, as Seoul tightened control over a key symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
North Korea had also conducted an ejection test of its new Bukkeukseong-1 (Polaris-1, KN-11) submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) as a part of its SLBM development programme, at the Sinpo South Shipyard.
The North responded by turning on its own speakers to drown out the noise, though they could hardly be heard across the border, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said.
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Some observers, however, are sceptical about the deterrent effect of such a deployment, citing a similar reaction to Pyongyang’s 2013 nuclear test that obviously failed to curb the Kim regime’s nuclear ambitions.
