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North Korea crisis: US flies supersonic bombers and stealth jets over Korean peninsula

Anthony Pearce
A B-1B Lancer bomber at the Guam military base in August
A B-1B Lancer bomber at the Guam military base in August

The United States and South Korea have conducted a joint “bombing exercise” in response to North Korea’s latest missile launch and recent nuclear tests.

B-1B supersonic bombers and F-35B stealth fighters, from bases in Japan and Guam, conducted the drill, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

Russia and China also began naval exercises in the eastern port of Vladivostok on Monday, according the official Xinhua news agency in Beijing.

The exercises come after Pyongyang fired another mid-range ballistic missile over Japan on Friday.

Japan condemned the “repeated provocations on the part of North Korea” calling them “impermissible”.

A pair of US B-1B bombers and four F-35B jets joined four South Korean F-15K fighters in the drill, South Korea’s defence minister said.

Song Young-moo said the joint drills were being conducted “two to three times a month these days”.

The powerful B-1B bomber is commonly called the “Bone” (from B-One) and has been flown several times this year, as tensions have mounted in the region.

Nikki Haley has warned that North Korea will be “destroyed” (Rex)
Nikki Haley has warned that North Korea will be “destroyed” (Rex)

Yesterday, the US ambassador to the United Nations has warned that North Korea will be “destroyed” if it continues its “reckless behaviour”.

Nikki Haley said that President Donald Trump’s “fire and fury” comments last month were not an empty threat.

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On Sunday, she said the UN Security Council has run out of options following North Korea’s recent nuclear tests and missile launches.

“We have pretty much exhausted all the things that we can do at the security council at this point,” she told CNN.

“We’re trying every other possibility that we have but there’s a whole lot of military options on the table,” she said.

North Korea’s latest missile launch
North Korea’s latest missile launch

“If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behaviour, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed and we all know that and none of us want that,” Haley added.

“None of us want war. But we also have to look at the fact that you are dealing with someone who is being reckless, irresponsible, and is continuing to give threats not only to the United States, but to all their allies, so something is going to have to be done,” she said.

Tensions have continued to rise since North Korea claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb earlier in the month.

It accused its enemies of being “hell-bent on escalating confrontation” as it tested the weapon, which can be loaded on to an intercontinental ballistic missile.

It was the country’s sixth nuclear test, but the first time Kim Jong-un has claimed to have tested a thermonuclear warhead, also known as a hydrogen bomb.

Previously, the country has tested atomic bombs — similar to those dropped on Japan in 1945 by the US — but hydrogen bombs can be 1,000 times more powerful.