The U.S. military is planning to fly a pair of B-1 long-range bombers over South Korea Tuesday as a show of the U.S. commitment to defend that country and Japan against the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack.
Last week, North Korea conducted its second nuclear detonation of the year, which it said was a successful test of a powerful warhead, small enough to fit atop a ballistic missile and reach the U.S. and its allies in the region.
The B-1 Lancer bombers will be flying from Guam in a mission designed to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to not only respond, but to deter a nuclear strike from the North, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorized to speak publicly because the flights had not yet taken place.
The planned flight by the supersonic bombers comes as South Korean officials are warning that North Korea has the ability to conduct a sixth nuclear test at any time at the same site where the five previous atomic explosions took place.
After the latest North Korean test on Friday, President Obama, just back from the G-20 and East Asia Summit meetings in Asia, said that as commander in chief he has a responsibility to lead the international community in responding to the growing North Korean threat with “commensurate resolve and condemnation.”
Obama said while in Asia he consulted with South Korean President President Park Geun-Hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after the North Korean test and assured both leaders of the “unshakable U.S. commitment” to defend our allies in the region with the “full spectrum of U.S. defense capabilities.”
The U.S. has already beefed up missile defenses on the Korean peninsula with the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to South Korea.
The U.S. deployed the B-1 Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to replace B-52s from Minot Air Force Base, which returned home to North Dakota.
