The US has sent nuclear B-52 bombers flying over the Korean Peninsula. They were joined by South Korean stealth jets and deployed in retaliation just hours after North Korea test-fired a new ballistic missile.
Pictures distributed by South Korea’s Defence Ministry show B-52 bombers and F-35 fighter jets taking part in air drills in a robust show of strength against the East Asian nation led by the despotic Kim Jong-un.
The B-52 Stratofortress can fly for 9,000 miles from takeoff and has capacity to transport more than 30 tonnes of bombs.
It can also carry huge numbers of nuclear-able cruise missiles and precision air-to-surface rockets.
Quoted in The Sun and other media, Lieutenant General Park Ha Sik, commander of the South Korean air force operation command, said the drills “show the strong resolve of the South Korea-US alliance and its perfect readiness to respond to any provocation by North Korea swiftly and overwhelmingly”.
Read more: Kim says new missile will make enemies ‘suffer in endless fear’
The posturing follows comments from Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s influential sister, warning that her country was prepared to take “quick, overwhelming action” against its southern neighbours and its ally, the United States.
The US planes were deployed just hours after Kim test-fired a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Thursday.
The dictator marshalled Thursday’s test and warned it would make enemies “experience a clearer security crisis, and constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror into them by taking fatal and offensive counter-actions until they abandon their senseless thinking and reckless acts”, according to North Korean state media.
“We will strike with deadly force and respond aggressively until the enemy gives up its idle strategy and foolish behaviour and so that it will suffer in endless fear,” he said.
Kim added that his country’s deadly new rocket will “constantly strike extreme uneasiness and horror” into enemies.
The majority of North Korea’s largest ballistic missiles use liquid fuel, meaning they need to be loaded with propellant at their launch site – a lengthy and dangerous process.
But the Hwasong-18 is a new solid-fuel ICBM that, according to state media, had been tested to “radically promote” North Korea’s nuclear counterattack capability.
It is believed that the missiles would make it easier for the despot to launch a full-scale nuclear attack.
Video was released of Kim and his young daughter watching the destructive weapon blast off into the sky after being fired near North Korea’s capital Pyongyang.
Officials say it travelled around 1,000km before landing in waters to the east of the country.
South Korea’s defence ministry said the weapon was still being developed by North Korea and that more time was required to master the technology, hinting that further tests could be undertaken by Pyongyang.