US sends warplanes to South Korea in show of force against North

The US has flown some of its most advanced warplanes to South Korea to take part in bombing drills aimed at intimidating North Korea after Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan earlier this week, the South said.

Two US B-1B supersonic bombers and four F-35 stealth fighter jets joined four South Korean F-15 fighters in live-fire exercises at a military field in eastern South Korea that simulated precision strikes against the North’s “core facilities”, an official from Seoul’s Defence Ministry said.

The B-1Bs were flown in from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam while the F-35s came from a US base in Iwakuni, Japan, the official said.

The North, which claims Washington has long threatened Pyongyang by flaunting the powerful US nuclear arsenal, describes the long-range B-1Bs as “nuclear strategic bombers” although the United States no longer arms them with nuclear weapons.

North Korea has made it clear that it sees its weapons programme, which demands regular testing to perfect, as the only way to contest decades of US hostility, by which it means the huge US military presence in South Korea, Japan and the Pacific.

Washington, in turn, seeks with its joint drills with Seoul and bomber flights to show that it will not be pushed from its traditional role of supremacy in the region.

In Beijing, North Korea’s ally China warned that war is not an option in finding a solution to Pyongyang’s growing nuclear capabilities.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Ren Guoqiang told reporters that all parties should exercise restraint and avoid words and actions that escalate tension.

The bombing exercise came as the United States and South Korea wrapped up their annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military drills that involved tens of thousands of soldiers.

North Korea condemns the annual US-South Korea war games as rehearsals for an invasion and described Tuesday’s launch over Japan as a countermeasure against the drills.

Washington and Seoul faced calls to postpone or downsize this year’s drills.

The United States often sends its warplanes to South Korea, mostly for patrols, when animosity rises on the Korean Peninsula, which is technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

North Korea on Tuesday flew a potentially nuclear-capable Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile over northern Japan and later called it a “meaningful prelude” to containing the US territory of Guam.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the launch was a “curtain-raiser of its resolute countermeasures” against the US-South Korea war games and called for his military to conduct more ballistic missile launches targeting the Pacific Ocean.

North Korea has been maintaining a rapid pace in weapons tests this year as it openly pursues an arsenal of nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching deep into the US mainland.

Experts say Kim wants a real nuclear deterrent against the United States to ensure the survival of his government and probably believes that it will strengthen his negotiating position when North Korea returns to talks.

Pyongyang had earlier threatened to fire a salvo of Hwasong-12s towards Guam, which is home to key US military bases and strategic long-range bombers the North finds threatening. It also flight-tested two developmental ICBMs in July.