SOUTH KOREA. Seoul: The US Air Force is expected to deploy B-1B strategic bombers in joint US-South Korea military exercises on Saturday.
The joint military drills emerged after North Korea fired an persistent series of weapons tests in recent days to protest allied military operations.
Seoul and Washington have been tied up in conducting an operation called “Vigilant Storm” air drills since Monday, which were extended to a day later as a retaliatory response to what the allies have called continued provocations from Pyongyang’s extensive military.
Pyongyang had reportedly called this military operation “an aggressive and provocative military drill targeting” North Korea and fired threats that the United States and South Korea would “pay the most horrible price in history” if they progressed with these joint drills.
The B-1B bomber is termed “the backbone of America’s long-range bomber force” by the US Air Force.
South Korean news media Yonhap agency said that this is the first time the B-1B bomber has been deployed in joint military drills between the US and South Korea since 2017.
The United States has stationed four of the bombers in Guam since late October, according to Yonhap.
As part of the live exercises to test the combat skills of bombers and military arsenal in the likely wake of a North Korean nuclear threat, South Korea has urged the US to mobilize deployment of “strategic assets”, including aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and long-range bombers like the B-1B.
Following his discussion with Defense Secretary Llyod Austin in Washington on Thursday, South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup said that the United States had agreed to unleash.
“US strategic assets to the level equivalent to constant deployment through increasing the frequency and intensity of strategic asset deployment in and around the Korean Peninsula,” she added.
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