US stages joint air exercises with Asian allies

The United States held joint air exercises bilaterally with South Korea and Japan involving strategic bombers on Sunday, a day after North Korea fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a "sudden launching drill".

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the exercise, in which South Korea's F-35A, F-15K and US F-16 fighters escorted American B-1B bombers, demonstrated the allies' "overwhelming" defence capabilities and readiness posture.

"(The exercise) strengthened the combined operation capability and affirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to the defence of the Korean Peninsula and the implementation of extended deterrence," the South's military said in a statement.

Japan flew F-15s over the Sea of Japan with the US Armed Forces' B-1 bombers and F-16s in tactical exercises, Japan's Defense Ministry said in a statement, calling the security environment "increasingly severe" after the latest North Korea missile landed within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

"This bilateral exercise reaffirms the strong will between Japan and the United States to respond to any situation, the readiness of (Japan's Self Defense Forces) and US Armed Forces, and further strengthens the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-US Alliance," the ministry said.

The air drills come a day after North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan's west coast, following a warning of a strong response to upcoming military drills by South Korea and the United States.

North Korea's state media KCNA said the country conducted a "sudden launching drill" on Saturday in an "actual proof" of its efforts to turn the "capacity of fatal nuclear counterattack on the hostile forces into an irresistible one".

Leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, issued yet another warning and accused the United States of trying to turn the UN Security Council into what she called a "tool for its heinous hostile policy" toward Pyongyang.

"I warn that we will watch every movement of the enemy and take corresponding and very powerful and overwhelming counteraction against its every move hostile to us," she said in a statement.

Source: Reuters