New Delhi: A Seoul Defense Ministry official told AFP that a B-1B strategic bomber will take part in the ongoing joint air exercises with South Korea on Saturday, in a show of force after a missile launch by North Korea.
The series of launches in Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday included an ICBM and a missile that landed near South Korean territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
US Air Force B-1B strategic bomber to participate
A South Korean Defense Ministry official told AFP that a US Air Force B-1B strategic bomber will take part in the last day of the exercise, code-named Vigilant Storm, which was originally scheduled from Monday to Friday this week.
“The B-1B is scheduled to participate in an afternoon exercise,” the official said, without providing further details.
The show of force came a day after South Korea sent fighter jets in response to what it said was the mobilization of 180 North Korean warplanes.
North Korea intensifies missile launches
Pyongyang intensified its missile launches in protest of the air exercises between the United States and South Korea. Such exercises have long infuriated North Korea, which it regards as rehearsals for an invasion.
Pyongyang called the Vigilance Storm an “aggressive and provocative military maneuver targeting” North Korea, and said the United States and South Korea would pay the heaviest price in history if it continued.
