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| US Deploys B-52H Nuclear Bombers to South Korea |
Seoul - The United States (US) deployed B-52H strategic nuclear bombers to South Korea to participate in joint combat exercises. It is also to counter North Korea's growing threat of nuclear weapons and missiles.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said joint combat drills had started on Monday in waters west of the Korean Peninsula. The drills took place over the waters of the Yellow Sea, where the bombers flew in combined formation with South Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighter jets.
According to the South Korean military, this incident came just three days after the US deployed B-1B heavy bombers to the same area. "The deployment of the US B-52H strategic bomber to the Korean Peninsula demonstrates the allied firm's decisive and outstanding capability and posture to deter and respond to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats," the South Korean military said in a statement. /3/2023).
The Pentagon previously deployed B-52H bombers to the Korean Peninsula last December, in a new show of force ahead of the major US-South Korean joint exercise "Freedom Shield", scheduled for March 13 to 23. The exercise is slated to be the largest combined maneuver in at least five years, and will involve aerial training as well as an amphibious landing.
The main exercise will be followed by a second exercise, which is called "Warrior Shield". Speaking to reporters in Seoul on Friday last week, US Forces-Korea spokesman Colonel Isaac Taylor said the war games were intended to enhance the US and South Korea's response capabilities to what it claimed was North Korean "aggression". "And will incorporate lessons learned from recent wars and conflicts."
The US and South Korea have opted to stage joint combat exercises despite Pyongyang's repeated objections, which they see as a "declaration of war". On Sunday, North Korea submitted a request to the United Nations to halt the joint war games altogether.
"Pyongyang has asked the United Nations and the international community to strongly urge the US and South Korea to immediately stop their provocative remarks and joint military exercises," said Kim Son-gyong, a top official at North Korea's Foreign Ministry, in a statement carried by KCNA.