Nuclear bombers sent to Pacific ahead of Trump’s regional visit amid North Korea tensions

The nuclear-fitted B-2 bombers travelled to the region as US Defence Secretary James Mattis declared the US would not “accept North Korea as a nuclear power”.

President Trump will visit South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines in a trip which has been viewed as highly provocative by Kim Jong-un.

Fears have been raised that Trump arriving in Seoul could spark a war on the Korean peninsular with tensions showing no sign of calming.

The tour was announced as a move to “confront the North Korean threat” in September.

The White House said: “The President’s engagements will strengthen the international resolve to confront the North Korean threat and ensure the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula.”

The jets can be refuelled mid-flight giving them the ability to strike any point in the world.

Defence Secretary James Mattis said: ”I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power.

“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbours and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs.”

Pyongyang have threatened to test their most powerful nuclear bomb in the Pacific ocean ahead of the visit.

Local news reports have suggested the US President could visit the heavily fortified DMZ border between South Korea and the North which it is feared will be seen as a threat.

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan, who Trump has long admired, took a tour of the area.

Now there have been calls for Trump to carry out the provocative trip as a show of strength.

But concerns have been raised the move could provoke retaliation from the isolated dictatorship amid soaring tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Sue Mi Terry, a former Korea analyst, said: “They’re seeing almost everything as a threat.

They already see him as a very provocative person.

“Anything that he does will be continually seen that way.”

Asked about a visit to the border President Trump said: “Well, I’d rather not say, but you’ll be surprised.”