By launching four ballistic missiles into the sea on Saturday North Korea added to its recent barrage of weapons demonstrations, in a duelling display of military might that underscored rising tensions in the region as the United States sent two supersonic bombers streaking over South Korea.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said around noon flew about 130 kilometres (80 miles) toward the country’s western sea and the four short-range missiles fired from a North Korean western coastal area.
On Thursday, including an intercontinental ballistic missile that triggered evacuation alerts in northern Japan, this week the North has test-fired more than 30 missiles, and to a massive combined aerial exercise between the United States and South Korea flew large numbers of warplanes inside its territory in an angry reaction.
During the last day of the “Vigilant Storm” joint air force drills that wrapped up Saturday two B-1B bombers trained with four U.S. F-16 fighter jets and four South Korean F-35 jets, the South Korean military said.
It marked the first time that the bombers were deployed to the Korean Peninsula since December 2017. Including advanced F-35 fighter jets from both countries, the exercise involved around 240 warplanes.
The country’s military actions this week as an appropriate response to the exercise, which it called a display of U.S. “military confrontation hysteria”, Late Friday North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described.
To infringe on its sovereignty or security interests it said North Korea will respond with the “toughest counteraction” to any attempts by “hostile forces”.
To defend its ally with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear, the participation of the B-1Bs in the joint drills demonstrated the allies’ readiness to “sternly respond” to North Korean provocations and the U.S. commitment, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Including the North’s provocative run in nuclear and long-range missile tests in 2017, B-1B flyovers had been a familiar show of force during past periods of tensions with North Korea.
To support the former Trump administration’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea and because of the COVID-19 pandemic but the flyovers had been halted in recent years as the United States and South Korea stopped their large-scale exercises.
After North Korea dialed up its weapons testing to a record pace the allies resumed their large-scale training this year, as a window to accelerate arms development exploiting a divide in the U.N. Security Council over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
North Korea hates such displays of American military might at close range. Although the plane was switched to conventional weaponry in the mid-1990s the North has continued to describe the B-1B as a “nuclear strategic bomber”.
In response to a series of North Korean ballistic launches on Thursday Vigilant Storm had been initially scheduled to end Friday, but the allies decided to extend the training to Saturday, including an ICBM that triggered evacuation alerts and halted trains in northern Japan.
The most in a single day, Thursday’s launches came after the North fired more than 20 missiles on Wednesday. Over their joint drills, which the North says are rehearsals for a potential invasion, those launches came after North Korean senior military official Pak Jong Chon issued a veiled threat of a nuclear conflict with the United States and South Korea.
South Korea also on Friday scrambled about 80 military aircraft after tracking about 180 flights by North Korean warplanes inside North Korean territory.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North Korean warplanes were detected in various areas inland and along the country’s eastern and western coasts, but did not come particularly close to the Koreas’ border.
About 180 flight trials from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. the South Korean military spotted , but it wasn’t immediately clear how many North Korean planes were involved and whether some may have flown more than once.
The United States and South Korea had created a seriously “unstable atmosphere” in the region with their military exercises, in Friday’s statement attributed to an unidentified spokesperson, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said.
To pressure North Korea to unilaterally disarm it accused the United States of mobilizing its allies in a campaign using sanctions and military threats.
“By sustained counteraction the sustained provocation is bound to be followed”, the statement said.
Including multiple ICBMs and an intermediate-range missile flown over Japan, North Korea has launched dozens of ballistic missiles this year. In the coming weeks South Korean officials say there are indications North Korea could detonate its first nuclear test device since 2017.
To accept it as a nuclear power, experts say North Korea is attempting to force the United States and seeks to negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
Source:- https://coinworldlive.com/as-us-flies-bombers-over-south-n-korea-fires-more-missiles/
