US bombers carry out rare drill over Korean Peninsula

US bombers carried out a rare live fire drill in South Korea on Saturday, flying close to the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in a show of force after Pyongyang’s latest missile test, the South’s defence ministry said.

The exercise by two B-1B Lancers was part of a 10-hour mission with South Korean and Japanese fighter jets in response to a “series of increasingly escalatory actions by North Korea including the intercontinental ballistic missile” on Tuesday, US Pacific Air Forces said.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the long-range heavy bombers flew close to the tense and heavily militarised land border with the North before turning back.

The exercise aimed to “sternly respond to the series of North Korea’s ballistic missile launches,” the South’s air force said in a statement.

The long-range heavy aircraft each dropped a 2,000-pound (900kilogram) laser-guided bunkerbusting smart bomb, Yonhap said.

The drill simulated the two US bombers destroying ballistic missile batteries and South Korean jets mounting precision strikes against underground enemy command posts, the South’s air force said. “Through this drill, the South Korean and US air forces demonstrated strong determination to thoroughly punish the enemy for its provocative acts, and showed off their capability to pulverise enemy command posts,” it said. AFP