While the USFK statement did not clarify how long the B-1B bomber would be staying in South Korea, it emphasized a willingness to act upon provocations by Pyongyang.
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“Some factions in Seoul have renewed calls for a nuclear force in South Korea – which now does not have nuclear weapons”, Elise says.
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.
North Korea is the only nation to have conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century and is already subject to five sanctions resolutions. -South Korea drills that have sparked verbal attacks from North Korea’s state media and propaganda outlets.
Following the news of the B-1B bombers’ flyover the Osan Air Base, the North expressed its disagreement with such action and called it “reckless provocation”.
“What we are showing today is just one tool we have to choose from a wide array of options”, said Lieutenant General Thomas W Bergeson of the US Air Force.
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.
“Here we are a few weeks after the fifth nuclear test and they are testing an engine which, according to North Korea, is a much more powerful single engine”, said Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from South Korean capital Seoul.
The United States, which has about 28,500 troops in South Korea, flew two B-1B bombers on September 13 escorted by US and South Korean fighter jets in a show of solidarity with Seoul.
North Korea doesn’t respond well to shows of power. Those, combined with an uptick in missile tests this year, have raised fears that Pyongyang is making faster-than-expected progress toward its stated goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the USA mainland. “By one estimate, this amount would have been nearly enough to both fund North Korea’s uranium enrichment facilities, and to design, make and test its nuclear weapons”, the report said.
There is a possibility that the U.S. will send B-52s and B-2s to Korea as well.
China is critical not only for enforcement of sanctions but agreeing to tougher measures, as it is a veto-wielding member of the Security Council.
Washington has pressed Beijing to lean harder on Pyongyang, but Chinese leaders have resisted for fear of destabilizing Kim’s government and setting off a flood of refugees or a political collapse that might lead to US and South Korean troops being stationed in the North near China’s border.
“This is a single rocket which North Korea says has a thrust of 80 tonnes of force”, he said.
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The US Treasury said in a January announcement of sanctions on people involved in Iran’s missile program that Iranian technicians had in recent years “traveled to North Korea to work on an 80-ton rocket booster being developed by the North Korean government”.
