The US and South Korea have staged a joint show of force over the Korean Peninsula, two days after North Korea fired a missile over Japan.
Four F-35B stealth jets and two B-1B strategic bombers from the United States trained with South Korea’s F-15K fighter jets over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday in response to North Korea’s continued ballistic missile launches and nuclear weapons development, the South’s Air Force announced.
The unprecedented combined maneuver involved the F-35Bs from Japan and the long-range bombers based in Guam as well as a squadron of four F-15Ks, it said.
They staged air-to-ground precision-strike drills against the North’s core facilities over the Pilseung Range in the eastern mountainous province of Gangwon. They used MK-84, MK-82 and GBU-32 bombs.
The Air Force characterized the training as a joint “air interdiction operation,” saying it showed the allies’ resolve to deal resolutely with the North’s provocation that threatens regional and global peace.
Also mobilized was a KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refueling plane, a defense source said.