After last week’s flyover, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency described the B-1B as an “ill-famed nuclear war means” and accused the United States of resorting to “nuclear threat and blackmail” against the North. This is the second time in just over a week that the B-1B Lancer bombers have flown over the South’s airspace.
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A B-1B strategic bomber lands at Osan Air Force Base Wednesday after a flyover in a show of force.
Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Bergeson, 7th Air Force commander, said the deployment was aimed at showing that the us has an unshakable commitment to defending South Korea.
“What we are showing today is just one tool we have to choose from a wide array of options”, Bergeson said in a statement.
The United States, which has about 28,500 troops in South Korea, flew two B-1 bombers on September 13 escorted by USA and South Korean fighter jets in a show of solidarity with Seoul. It remains to be seen how long the B-1B bomber will remain at the Osan base.
The South Korean Defense Department told CNN the plans aren’t direct preparations for North Korea and that it will also work on a mock “sudden missile attack”.
The move comes a day after Pyongyang claimed that it had successfully tested a new, high-powered rocket engine that the South said was created to demonstrate progress toward attaining a long-range missile. “The alliance grows stronger every day and we remain prepared to defend and to preserve the security of the Korean Peninsula and the region”, Lt. Gen. Thomas Bergeson, commander of the USA 7th Air Force in South Korea, said in a statement.
This latest show of strength from the U.S. comes just over a week after it sent two B-1Bs to South Korea on September 13.
Moscow accused Pyongyang of threatening the security of the Korean Peninsula and the entire region through its policies, while Russian Federation urged North Korea to re-join the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.
China is critical not only for enforcement of sanctions but agreeing to tougher measures, as it is a veto-wielding member of the Security Council. North Korea called that a bluff and said such actions were pushing tensions to the “point of explosion”.
“‘Left unchecked, Pyongyang will likely develop the capability to reach the continental United States with a nuclear tipped missile in a decade or so, ‘ [Hecker] wrote on the North Korea-focused website 38 North”.
In military alliance with the USA forces, Seoul also has the Kill Chain system by which it will pre-emptively hit missile-related facilities following signs of imminent missile attacks from the North.
In August, Pyongyang accused Washington of preparing an invasion and threatened to retaliate with a “merciless and annihilating” nuclear strike on USA forces if there is any sign of a military provocation.
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US Forces Korea said in a statement the flight by the pair of strategic bombers was a show of force and of the US commitment to preserve the security of the peninsula and the region.
