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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While China remains non-committal on how to respond to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, the United States and South Korea are exercising their limited options to increase deterrence and punitive measures against the Kim Jong Un government.
The B-52 Bomber conducted a low fly pass just four minutes south of the border amid growing tensions between the USA and North Korea.
South Korea has resumed high-decibel propaganda broadcasts across the border in response, which the North said were driving the divided peninsula to “the brink of war”.
The B-52 was flanked by South Korean F-15 fighter jets and U.S. F-16 fighter jets.
The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has mobilized 500 officials to check whether the North’s nuclear test has caused any environmental and radiation damage to the Chinese side, according to the ministry’s statement released on Monday. “USA joint military forces in the Indo-Asia-Pacific will continue to work with all of our regional allies and partners to maintain stability and security”.
A US Forces Korea spokesman said the mission was a “response to recent provocative action by North Korea”.
A man watches a news report at a railroad station in Seoul on January 6, 2016, after seismologists detected a 5.1 magnitude tremor next to North Korea’s main atomic test site in the northeast of the country.
North Korean top leader Kim Jong Un has defended Wednesday’s nuclear test as a self-defensive step against a United States threat of nuclear war.
Curtis Scaparrotti, Commander, U.N. Command/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea (USFK), made the order during a visit to the Osan Air Base, operated jointly by the United States and South Korea, a USFK official said.
The North’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Seoul’s current envoy to the talks is to meet his Washington and Tokyo counterparts Wednesday, before moving on to China for dialogue with Beijing’s representative the following day. “The North Korean regime has survived for more than 65 years, but internal economic and political strains could eventually lead to a sudden collapse”.
CNN is the only USA broadcaster operating in North Korea.
SEOUL – US forces in South Korea were put on their highest level of alert on Monday in case of any provocation from North Korea, following North Korea’s nuclear test last week.
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The White House and Western nuclear weapons experts said initial seismic and other data did not support North Korea’s claim, however, because the underground blast appeared similar in size to the three previous nuclear tests.
