“It was meant to bolster the ability of Japanese and USA forces to respond to situations”, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. Beijing doesn’t want to see a collapsed North Korean regime, because that could bring the USA defense umbrella up to China’s southern border. It remains to be seen what impact the presence of the two bombers in South Korea will have and how North Korea will respond to this situation.
Advertisement
North Korea on Wednesday protested the United States’ flyover of two B-1B nuclear-capable strategic bombers over South Korea, saying such “reckless provocations” should stop.
There has been severe flooding in North Korea forcing more than 100,000 people to leave their homes and killing 133 people, with hundreds more missing.
North Korea’s propaganda machine, for its part, has kept up its typical anti-Seoul threats and crude insults against Park, calling her “hideous confrontation manic” and “the Korean nation’s biggest trouble-maker”.
North Korea is deliberately and methodically preparing to fight and win a limited nuclear war against the U.S. and its allies in the Korean peninsula.
“Our intention and that’s shared with the Republic of Korea is to secure the strongest possible (U.N. Security Council) resolution that includes new sanctions as quickly as possible”.
After conducting the nuclear test on September 8, North Korea claimed that its nuclear explosion test was successful and it was now capable of making nuclear weapons.
This undated photo released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 21, 2016 shows a missile being fired during a drill by the North Korean army.
Seoul’s military estimated the fifth test was the most powerful as it produced an explosive yield of 10 kilotons, stronger than 6 kilotons generated during the fourth nuclear detonation in January.
Days after North Korea conducted its most powerful nuclear test yet, two USA bombers flew over South Korea in a display of force – a warning to Pyongyang and reassurance to Seoul.
The B-1B bombers, escorted by USA and South Korean jets, were seen by an Associated Press photographer as they flew over Osan Air Base, which is 75 miles from the border with North Korea. Earlier in the mission, which was flown out of Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the B-1’s were escorted by Japanese F-15’s. This undermines any future warnings USA forces might send. Washington also stations more than 28,000 troops in the South, and tens of thousands more in Japan.
He said the United States would work with China, North Korea’s major diplomatic ally, to close loopholes in existing resolutions, which were tightened with Beijing’s backing in March.
USPACOM added the B-1Bs subsequently conducted low-level flight with South Korean F-15 fighters and U.S. F-16 aircraft in Osan, South Korea.
But the presence of the THAAD system has drawn criticism, particularly from China, which tends to view any increase in US military presence in Asia as an attempt to contain it and reduce its influence in the region.
North Korea is testing the nuclear missiles.
Pyongyang’s claim to have used “standardized” warheads in the nuclear explosion, making few other nations worry that it is making progress to develop small, sophisticated warheads that can be mounted on missiles that can reach the U.S. mainland.
Pyongyang’s activities are “a effect of the administrations’ failed policy of strategic patience and its hollow pivot to Asia”, said U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“If the North Koreans are ready to talk to us sincerely, about denuclearization, I think we can work with them in the six-party process”. Since then, Pyongyang has ramped up both its ballistic missile and nuclear bomb development, despite an increasing raft of sanctions.
She said such discussions would only buy the North more time to ideal its nuclear weapons.
“North Korea’s nuclear test is a unsafe escalation and poses an unacceptable threat”, said the general, adding the U.S. has an “unshakable commitment” to defend allies in the region.
This reality should change the way the world and South Korea deal with security threats posed by the rogue regime.
Advertisement
South Korea, the U.S. and their allies have promised to apply more pressure and sanctions after the test, the second this year.
