Television footage showed two supersonic B-1B Lancers flying low over the US Osan Air Base at Pyeongtaek, 64km south of Seoul. The act drew global condemnation amid concerns about the acceleration of North Korea’s nuclear capabilities. It did not immediately respond to Wednesday’s flight.
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She said the USA sees North Korean nukes as the primary threat in the region, but China is more afraid of having US troops on its border if the North Korean state were to collapse and, presumably, end up folded into a unified Korea that’s dominated by the South. “The alliance grows stronger every day, and we remain prepared to defend and to preserve the security of the Korean Peninsula and the region”.
The South’s Yonhap news agency said the aircraft flew over a USA live-fire training site in the Pocheon area bordering the North.
Two U.S. supersonic bombers flew over South Korea on Wednesday, with one of them landing at an air base 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, according to a Reuters witness, the second such flight since North Korea’s September 9 nuclear test.
The armed protests came after North Korea said on Sept 9 that it successfully conducted an explosion test of nuclear warhead to fit on ballistic rockets.
A day after that flyover, North Korea accused the U.S. of “bluffing” and “blustering” with the flyover and said such actions were inflaming tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea is home to around 28,500 U.S. troops and numerous bases.
Over the past year, the country has carried out several long-range missile tests within its space program that the United Nations and others believe to be a cover for ballistic-missile and rocket testing.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a ground test of a new rocket engine to launch satellites, the North’s state media reported on Tuesday, the latest in a rapid succession of missile-related tests this year by the isolated state.
In response to North Korea’s increasingly belligerent rhetoric, the United States has been working with South Korea to install a missile defense system known as THAAD.
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South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo told parliament the North was developing all types of missiles, from short- to long-range, and its advances were “considerable”.
