Television footage showed two supersonic B-1B Lancers flying low over the US Osan Air Base at Pyeongtaek, 64 kilometers (40 miles) south of Seoul.
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The US Air Force confirmed that the flight on Wednesday was the closest ever to North Korea, while it was also the first time in two decades that a B-1B Lancer had landed on South Korean soil.
“What we are showing today is just one tool we have to choose from a wide array of options”, Bergeson said.
The recent flyover comes amid growing tensions with North Korea, sparked by its latest underground nuclear test earlier this month, followed by its alleged successful test-run of a high-powered engine that experts say is designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile to target the us mainland.
Despite UN sanctions barring North Korea from conducting any test of nuclear or ballistic missile technology, the isolated country has engaged in a series of demonstrations of military might over the past few months, including the launch of ballistic missiles from a submarine.
North Korea has been testing nuclear and ballistic missiles at an unprecedented rate this year.
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.
It was reported that the USA military had mulled sending the more advanced B-2 bomber, in light of growing threats from North Korea.
Both bombers landed just 25 miles south of North Korea’s capital after flying over a USA live-fire training site in the Pocheon area bordering the North. Rather, we need to target them more effectively, based on an improved understanding of how North Korea, Inc. has learned how to evade them.
In its announcement, South Korea said the nuclear facility attack simulation will take place using a GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition, a kit that converts bombs that normally just free-fall from planes into guided munitions.
The B-1 Lancer is a four-engine strategic bomber that can reach speeds of Mach 2.
This week’s test prompted fears that North Korea is edging closer to a long-range missile launch. Two US strategic bombers on Wednesday 21 flew over South Korea and one of them made a rare landing in the country in a fresh show of force against North Korea. For this reason, South Korea and the USA have been looking into a number of a different defensive countermeasures. Since North Korea’s first nuclear test in October 2006, the United Nations Security Council has adopted five resolutions created to deny North Korea access to components for its nuclear and missile programs.
The North conducted its fifth underground atomic blast on September 9, ignoring worldwide condemnation and sanctions imposed after the previous nuclear test in January.
The Associated Press notes that flyovers by USA bombers are “fairly common” when tensions flare up on the Korean peninsula. A viable nuclear deterrent, as North Korea calls it, would change that.
It is hard to overstate the risks were North Korea, the world’s most militarized and closed society, to cross this threshold.
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United Nations diplomats say the two countries have begun discussions on a possible United Nations resolution in response to the nuclear test earlier this month, but Beijing has not said directly whether it would support tougher steps against North Korea.
