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.
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“Today marks the first time the airframe has landed on the Korean peninsula in 20 years, as well as conducting the closest flight near North Korea ever”, the U.S. Air Force posted on its website.
North Korea doesn’t respond well to shows of power.
North Korea conducted its fifth and most powerful nuclear test to date on September 9, claiming it as a successful nuclear warhead detonation that proved its ability to mass produce “standardized” nuclear weapons that could be used on missiles.
One of the aircraft flew back to the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, while the other landed at Osan, Yonhap news agency said.
The B-1B doesn’t now carry nuclear weapons under a disarmament treaty, and some USA experts do not consider them as nuclear capable in their current configuration.
The source said, “They may stay at the US air base for several days for a possible unveiling to the public during the Osan base’s opening event this weekend”. North Korea’s government often cites such maneuvers as proof of the imminent threat posed by the United States – as well as the reason it needs a nuclear program.
In response to a spate of military provocations by the North, the South Korean military recently unveiled an operation plan titled “Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation (KMPR)”, in which the military vows to directly target the North Korean military and political leadership, most importantly North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in the event of a nuclear attack by the North.
The announcement riled Pyongyang and caused consternation in China, the North’s principal trading partner and diplomatic ally, as Jason Thomson wrote for The Christian Science Monitor at the time. And then once they have those capabilities, what are they going to do with them?
“I certainly don’t believe THAAD or any missile defense is a panacea”, says Jonathan Pollack, Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
South Korea’s prime minister, Hwang Kyo-ahn, told parliament South Korea wanted existing United Nations sanctions against the North tightened by removing loopholes that allow it to trade in minerals if it is for subsistence. It remains to be seen how long the B-1B bomber will remain at the Osan base. The simple answer to that question is that nobody seems to know, bar the regime in Pyongyang, but the rhetoric – and continued missile and nuclear tests – seems meant to instill fear.
The North’s fifth nuclear test earlier this month has given rise to greater calls in South Korea for the country’s own nuclear armament, with not only lawmakers of the conservative ruling Saenuri Party, but also members of liberal opposition parties making the pro-nuclear weapons case.
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This report contains material from Reuters and the Associated Press.
