SEOUL
(Reuters) - The United States flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula
in a show of force after recent North Korean missile tests, the U.S. Air Force
said in a statement on Sunday.
North Korea
said it conducted another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic
missile (ICBM) on Friday that proved its ability to strike America's mainland,
drawing a sharp warning from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The B-1B
flight, conducted on Saturday, was in direct response to the missile test and
the previous July 3 launch of the "Hwansong-14" rocket, the U.S.
statement said. The bombers took off from a U.S. air base in Guam, and were
joined by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets during the exercise, according
to the statement.
"North
Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability," Pacific Air
Forces commander General Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy said in the statement.
"If
called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force
at a time and place of our choosing".
The U.S. has
in the past used overflights of the supersonic B1-B "Lancer" bomber
as a show of force in response to North Korean missile or nuclear tests.
North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un personally supervised the midnight test launch of the
missile on Friday night and said it was a "stern warning" for the
United States that it would not be safe from destruction if it tries to attack,
the North's official KCNA news agency said.
North
Korea's state television broadcast pictures of the launch, showing the missile
lifting off in a fiery blast in darkness and Kim cheering with military aides.
China, the
North's main ally, said it opposed North Korea's missile launches, which it
said violate United Nations Security Council resolutions designed to curb
Pyongyang's banned nuclear and missile programmes.
"At the
same time, China hopes all parties act with caution, to prevent tensions from
continuing to escalate," China's foreign ministry said in a statement on
Saturday.
However,
Trump said he was "very disappointed in China".
Slideshow (8
Images)
In a message
on Twitter, he said: "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make
hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet..."
"...they
do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to
continue. China could easily solve this problem!" he said in a subsequent
tweet.
The
Hwasong-14, named after the Korean word for Mars, reached an altitude of
3,724.9 km (2,314.6 miles) and flew 998 km (620 miles)for 47 minutes and 12
seconds before landing in the waters off the Korean peninsula's east coast,
KCNA said.
Western
experts said calculations based on that flight data and estimates from the
U.S., Japanese and South Korean militaries showed the missile could have been
capable of going as far into the United States as Denver and Chicago.
David Wright
of the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in a blog post that if it
had flown on a standard trajectory, the missile would have had a range of
10,400 km (6,500 miles).
North Korea
refers to the United States as its sworn enemy in its propaganda, and has done
so since the 1950-53 Korean War in which the Soviet and Chinese-backed North
fought against the U.S.-backed South. The isolated country often shows mockup
images of a missile hitting key U.S. landmarks in its media.
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