[Aju News DB]
North Korea slammed American B-1B strategic bombers for staging a simulated attack on its key targets with nuclear weapons during their flight on and around the Korean peninsula ahead of an Asia trip by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The exercise was conducted on Thursday when the bombers entered South Korea's airspace off the east coast after flying over Okinawa, Japan, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The bombers, escorted by South Korean fighter jets, practiced dropping bombs on a South Korean shooting range in a simulated nuclear strike against key North Korean facilities, it said.
The U.S. Pacific Air Forces confirmed two B-1B Lancers from Guam conducted regular missions with South Korean and Japanese fighters. "The Lancers then transited overland to Korea to integrate with Republic of Korea fighters in the Yellow Sea," it said in a statement.
U.S. and South Korean troops are on tight vigilance before Trump's 12-day swing through South Korea, Japan and China. Trump is to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Seoul on Tuesday.
In Washington, Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said military options against North Korea would be discussed at talks between Trump and Moon. "(It would be) irresponsible not to talk about the potential for military efforts within the alliance."
"What we think is essential is to continue the economic and diplomatic isolation of the North Korean regime so that the leaders within that regime recognize that this weapon, this pursuit of this destructive capability, is not making them more secure, but making them less secure," McMaster said.
Earlier in Seoul, the South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) raised the possibility of a fresh missile test, saying that "active" movement of vehicles around a missile research center in Pyongyang has been detected. North Korea may reprocess spent fuel rods at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon late this year to extract plutonium, the spy agency said in a report, according to lawmakers who attended a closed parliamentary session.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
