April 26, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] In a show of force against North Korea’s second launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, two US long-range strategic bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula for a joint drill with the South Korean Air Force, the allies’ militaries said on July 30.

After taking off from Anderson Air Base in Guam, the B-1B Lancers joined South Korean F-15K fighter jets to conduct interception and formation training in Gangwon Province and the East Sea, a region close to the eastern border between the two Koreas, according to the South Korean and US Air Forces. 

Armed with precision-guided bombs capable of targeting North Korea’s underground nuclear facilities and wartime commands, the bombers left the Korean airspace later in the day after ending their 10-hour mission, the allies’ militaries said.

“North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” said Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, US Pacific Air Forces commander. “If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.”

The deployment came as a “direct response” to the North’s test-fire of an ICBM on Friday, which flew on a lofted trajectory to reach an apogee of about 3,700 kilometers, before landing 998 kilometers from its launch site in Chagang Province in northwestern North Korea.

Hours after the launch, Defense Minister Song Young-moo said South Korea will deploy strategic US military assets to the Korean Peninsula. Song did not specify what the strategic assets would be, but they usually refer to US strategic bombers and aircraft carriers.

When North Korea fired its first ICBM Hwasong-14 on July 4, two B-1b launchers were deployed to the peninsula four days later and conducted a joint live-fire exercise with the South Korean Air Force. Sunday’s exercise, however, did not involve a live-fire exercise, officials said.

By Yeo Jun-suk/The Korea Herald (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)