North Korea US Tension - News & Discussion

[GlobalVillageSpace]

Will Trump be left standing alone against North Korea?
Global Village Space |

M. K. Bhadrakumar |

On Tuesday, even as Moon Jae-in got elected as South Korea’s next president, in faraway Oslo, North Korean and American representatives sat down to hold “informal discussions” for the second day. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman effectively welcomed the development:

Moon will breathe new life into the ‘Sunshine Policy’ toward North Korea, advocated by South Korea’s two previous left-leaning presidents Kin Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun.

First, it has been China’s position to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation… China also calls on and encourages various parties to resume dialogue and contact at an early date… China has noted the statement by the US side and its positive signal of peacefully resolving the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation. We believe that relevant parties have also noticed the signal in a timely manner… China will stay in touch with relevant parties and work to bring the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula back to the right track of peaceful settlement through dialogue and consultation.

China’s mediatory role is obvious. Indeed, Moon’s election dovetails with the meet in Oslo. Moon will breathe new life into the ‘Sunshine Policy’ toward North Korea, advocated by South Korea’s two previous left-leaning presidents Kin Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun. The progressive forces in South Korea have stood for improved inter-Korea ties.

Read more: US-North Korea tensions: Will the US use military option to deal with North Korea?

Moon Jae-in’s government plan; dangerous for US administration
The Pentagon hurriedly deployed the THAAD in March knowing that Moon’s election in May was all but certain and anticipating that the planned deployment by the end of 2017 may not come through once he took charge.

The American commentators say Moon’s liberal government is bad news for US President Donald Trump as it could spell trouble for the US-South Korea alliance. True, Moon will refuse to pay up $1 billion, which is the bill Trump has presented for the deployment of the US’ ABM system in South Korea – known as THAAD missile. Actually, Moon is against the deployment itself.

The Pentagon hurriedly deployed the THAAD in March knowing that Moon’s election in May was all but certain and anticipating that the planned deployment by the end of 2017 may not come through once he took charge. The bottom line is the North Korea missile threat provides an alibi for the US to deploy the ABM system in the Far East, which has the capability to neutralize China’s nuclear capability.

Again, Moon, son of North Korean refugees, seeks a conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang, which will grate against Trump’s negotiating style of bullying the potential interlocutor first before dealing. Most certainly, Moon’s softer approach exposes Trump’s pretension that the US’ ‘strategic patience’ with North Korea has run out.

Read more: The US vows to force N.Korea back to nuclear talks

President Moon willing to visit North Korea
Moon, son of North Korean refugees, seeks a conciliatory approach toward Pyongyang, which will grate against Trump’s negotiating style of bullying the potential interlocutor first before dealing.

However, the more significant realignment is going to be Moon’s keenness to foster friendly ties with China. Fundamentally, South Korea under Moon’s leadership will be on the same page as China in regard to the approach to the North Korean problem – avoid provocative moves or political and military escalation and peacefully resolve the problem through dialogue and consultation. In his first remarks after being sworn in as President earlier today, Moon said he’d be willing to visit North Korea under the right conditions. He also made clear in a major signal to China that he intends to renegotiate the deployment of THAAD system, which casts a shadow on South Korea’s flourishing ties with China.

Read full article:
Will Trump be left standing alone against North Korea?

 

[JOEY TRIBIANI]

Who want to take the responsibility if North korea succeed in detonating atleast 1 nuclear warhead?
.
.
Obviously no one .

 

[PeaceGen]

i have read this and can not give any advice, comments, etc, here.
it would conflict with what i already posted earlier on this forum, and the mix of new technology by which wars can be won, is extremely foggy (difficult to describe, let alone calculate with/on). i do remain of the opinion that nuclear-weapons proliferation is not what the world can handle at the moment, nor should let happen in the future.

 

[Hindustani78]

In this photo North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un at an exhibition organised by the Ministry of People’s Armed Forces.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...es-dialogue/article18451001.ece?homepage=true

U.S. Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile".
North Korea fired a ballistic missile early on Sunday that flew 700 kilometres, South Korea's military said, days after a new leader took office in the South pledging to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang.

The missile was fired from the region of Kusong, northwest of Pyongyang, where the North in February successfully test-launched an intermediate-range missile that it is believed to be developing.

Japan said the latest missile reached an altitude of more than 2,000 km and flew for 30 minutes before dropping into the sea between North Korea's east coast and Japan. The North has consistently test-fired missiles in that direction.

Sunday's launch, at 5:27 a.m. Seoul time (2027 GMT Saturday), came two weeks after North Korea fired a missile that disintegrated minutes into flight, marking its fourth consecutive failure since March.

The U.S. Pacific Command said it was assessing the type of missile but it was “not consistent with an intercontinental ballistic missile".

“U.S. Pacific Command is fully committed to working closely with our Republic of Korea and Japanese allies to maintain security,” a spokesperson said, referring to South Korea by its official name.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who took office on Wednesday, held his first National Security Council meeting as president in response to North Korea's latest missile launch, which he called a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the presidential office said.

“The president said while South Korea remains open to the possibility of dialogue with North Korea, it is only possible when the North shows a change in attitude,” Yoon Young-chan, Moon's press secretary, said at a briefing.

Moon won Tuesday's election on a platform of a moderate approach to North Korea and has said he would be willing to go to Pyongyang under the right circumstances, arguing dialogue must be used in parallel with sanctions to resolve its neighbour's defiance of the international community.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters on Sunday that North Korea's repeated missile launches are a “grave threat to our country and a clear violation of UN resolutions.”

Abe said Japan will stay in close touch with the United States and South Korea.

Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment when he was asked whether the latest missile launch was a success, and whether it represented a new level of threat.

Missile tests at unprecedented pace

North Korea launched the Pukguksong-2 missile, an upgraded, extended-range version of its submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), from the same Kusong site on Feb 12.

South Korean and U.S. military officials said the February launch was a significant development as it successfully tested a solid-fuel engine from a mobile launcher. The missile flew about 500 km with an altitude of 550 km.

It represented a more significant threat because of the difficulty of tracking a mobile launcher and because of the ability to keep the missile fuelled in advance, unlike liquid fuel rockets.

The North attempted but failed to test-launch ballistic missiles four consecutive times in the past two months but has conducted a variety of missile tests since the beginning of last year at an unprecedented pace.

Weapons experts and government officials believe the North has accomplished some technical progress with those tests.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned in an interview with Reuters in late April that a “major, major conflict” with the North was possible, but he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute over its nuclear and missile programmes.

On Saturday, a senior North Korean diplomat who is a veteran member of its nuclear negotiating team, said the country was open to dialogue with the Trump administration under the right conditions, without elaborating.

Choe Son Hui, the North's Foreign Ministry director general for U.S. affairs, spoke to reporters while in transit in Beijing after attending a conference with former U.S. officials in Norway.

South Korea, the United States and other regional powers have been stepping up efforts to diffuse tensions over the North's weapons programme after a sharp rise in tensions in April over concerns that it may conduct a sixth nuclear test.

North Korea has briefly reported on Moon's election win and said conservatives in South Korea should be thrown out for good for inciting confrontation between the rival states.

There was no immediate reaction from China. Delegations from Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang are gathering in Beijing on Sunday to attend China's new Silk Road forum, its biggest diplomatic event of the year.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...development/article18451006.ece?homepage=true

Some of the key dates of North Korea missile programme right from 1970s.
North Korea on Sunday test-fired a ballistic missile, the latest in a series of rocket and nuclear tests that have sent regional tensions soaring.

Here are key dates in its missile programme:

Late 1970s: Starts working on a version of the Soviet Scud-B (range 300 kilometres or 186 miles). Test-fired in 1984

1987-92: Begins developing variant of Scud-C (500 km), Rodong-1 (1,300 km), Taepodong-1 (2,500 km), Musudan-1 (3,000 km) and Taepodong-2 (6,700 km)

Aug 1998: Test-fires Taepodong-1 over Japan as part of failed satellite launch

Sept 1999: Declares moratorium on long-range missile tests amid improving ties with US

July 12, 2000: Fifth round of US-North Korean missile talks ends without agreement after North demands $1 billion a year in return for halting missile exports

March 3, 2005: North ends moratorium on long-range missile testing, blames Bush administration's "hostile" policy

July 5, 2006: North test-fires seven missiles, including a long-range Taepodong-2 which explodes after 40 seconds

Oct 9, 2006: North conducts underground nuclear test, its first

April 5, 2009: North Korea launches long-range rocket which flies over Japan and lands in the Pacific, in what it says is an attempt to put a satellite into orbit. The United States, Japan and South Korea see it as a disguised test of a Taepodong-2

May 25, 2009: North conducts its second underground nuclear test, several times more powerful than the first

April 13, 2012: North launches what it has said is a long-range rocket to put a satellite into orbit, but it disintegrates soon after blast-off and falls into the ocean

December 12, 2012: North launches a multi-stage rocket and successfully places an Earth observational satellite in orbit

February 12, 2013: Conducts its third underground nuclear test

January 6, 2016: North conducts its fourth underground nuclear test, which it says was of a hydrogen bomb -- a claim doubted by most experts

February 7, 2016: North Korea launches a satellite-bearing rocket, an operation widely seen as a covert ballistic missile test

March 9, 2016: Kim Jong-Un claims the North has successfully miniaturised a thermo-nuclear warhead


April 15, 2016: North Korea tries but fails to test-fire what appears to be a medium-range missile on the birthday of founding leader Kim Il-Sung

April 23, 2016: North test-fires a submarine-launched ballistic missile

July 8, 2016: US and South Korea announce plans to deploy an advanced missile defence system -- the US THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense)

August 3, 2016: North Korea fires a ballistic missile directly into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time

August 24, 2016: Successfully test-fires a submarine–launched ballistic missile, in what it says is retaliation for large-scale South Korea-US military exercises

September 5, 2016: North Korea fires three ballistic missiles off its east coast as top world leaders meet at the G20 summit in China

September 9, 2016: Fifth nuclear test

October 15, 2016: An intermediate-range Musudan missile, theoretically capable of reaching US bases on Guam, is tested but explodes shortly after launch

February 12, 2017: North conducts test of ballistic missile which flies about 500 kilometres (310 miles) before falling into the Sea of Japan

March 6, 2017: North fires four ballistic missiles in what is says is an exercise to hit US bases in Japan. Three come down in waters that are part of Japan's exclusive economic zone

March 7, 2017: US begins deploying THAAD missile defence system in South Korea

March 19, 2017: North Korea says it has tested a new rocket engine

April 5, 2017: North Korea fires a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan (East Sea), which the US says was an extended-range Scud missile

April 16, 2017: North Korea stages a failed missile test

April 29, 2017: North test-fires a ballistic missile which fails after a brief flight

May 2, 2017: THAAD anti-missile system goes operational in South Korea

May 14, 2017: North fires a ballistic missile which flies 700 kilometres before landing in the Sea of Japan.

 

[beijingwalker]

This is what would happen if North Korea launched a real attack
By Chris Perez
May 16, 2017 | 10:31pm

President Trump would have “maybe 10 minutes” to decide whether to launch a retaliatory strike against North Korea — should it ever fire a missile that’s capable of reaching the US mainland, experts say.

Speaking to the Associated Press about what would happen in the event of a nuclear strike from the North, scientist David Wright, of the UCS Global Security Program, and rocket analyst Markus Schiller, of ST Analytics in Germany, described how the drama would unfold.

“The timelines are short,” Wright explained. “Even for long-range missiles, there are a lot of steps that go into detecting the launch and figuring out what it is, leaving the president with maybe 10 minutes to decide whether to launch a retaliatory strike.”

While experts insist that North Korea is still not capable of launching a missile that could reach the United States, the communist nation on Monday claimed they could.

It’s state-run KCNA news service alleged that it now had the ability to send a “large-size heavy nuclear warhead” across the Pacific following their test of the Hwasong-12 missile over the weekend.

But Kim Dong-yub, professor at South Korea’s Kyungnam University, told local media that they’d be lucky to reach Alaska or Hawaii, at best.

If they did have the capability of hitting US targets, though, Wright and Schiller predict that things could get out of hand — and fast.

While Wright believes an intercontinental ballistic missile fired from the Hermit Kingdom would take a little over a half hour to reach San Francisco, Schiller said he believes one could strike Seattle and Los Angeles in less than 30 minutes from launch.

New York and Washington, at less than 6,800 miles away, would likely have between 30-40 minutes before being hit, Schiller and Wright said.

American allies around the Korean Peninsula will have an even shorter window, should leader Kim Jong Un decide to attack his neighbors in the South Pacific.

People living in Seoul would essentially have zero to 6 minutes — from the moment a missile is launched to the time it hits the target — to take cover in the event of a strike, Schiller and Wright said.

Those in Japan will have a little more time to prepare, but not much. Schiller and Wright estimate that it would take 10-11 minutes before a missile from the North reached Tokyo.

Then there’s the added risk of Un using chemical or biological warheads, while also unleashing a “swarm” attack on South Korea and Japan — using medium-range Scud ER missiles, which were tested back in March.

While defense systems are in place to defend against such assaults, Schiller and Wright warned that they could wind up failing or prove worthless against artillery strikes and multiple projectiles.

The pair told the AP that if the North ultimately thought it was under immediate attack or threatened, one possible scenario would be that it would first target the South Korean city of Busan, which is often used as a port by the US Navy.

From that point on, it is unclear what would likely be the next step — but if President Trump did decide to fire back, Schiller and Wright said he could have land-based ICBMs in the air within five minutes, and submarine-based missiles in 15.

http://nypost.com/2017/05/16/this-is-what-would-happen-if-north-korea-launched-a-real-attack/amp/

 

[neem456]

Either way we would have one less country on the map, and americans rolling over NK, and future will see japan 2.0 just next to china.

 

[The BrOkEn HeArT]

I don't think that fat guy is a moron .

 

[ashok321]

When the push comes to shove for Korea del Norte, anything is possible from unpredictable regime of NOKO.
Marta kya na karta..

 

[Hindustani78]

People watch a television broadcasting a news report on North Korea firing what appeared to be a short-range ballistic missile, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, on Monday. | Photo Credit: Reuters

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...missile-off-western-japan/article18598103.ece
The North’s nuclear and missile programs are perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenges to the new leaders in Washington and Seoul.
North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile that landed in Japan’s maritime economic zone on Monday, officials said, in the latest in a string of test launches as the North seeks to build nuclear-tipped ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland.

The suspected Scud-type missile launched from the coastal town of Wonsan flew about 450 km, the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It landed in Japan’s exclusive maritime economic zone, which is set about 200 nautical miles off the Japanese coast, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said. He said there was no report of damage to planes or vessels in the area.

North Korea is still thought to be several years from its goal of being able to target U.S. mainland cities with a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile. It has a strong arsenal of short-and medium-range missiles that could hit Japan and South Korea as well as U.S. forces in the region, and it is working to perfect its longer-range missiles.

North Korea’s state-controlled media had no immediate comment. But a day earlier, the North said leader Kim Jong Un had watched a successful test of a new type of anti-aircraft guided weapon system. It wasn’t clear from the state media report when the test happened.

Mr. Kim found that the weapon system’s ability to detect and track targets had “remarkably” improved and was more accurate, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. KCNA cited Mr. Kim as ordering officials to mass-produce and deploy the system all over the country so as to “completely spoil the enemy’s wild dream to command the air.”

The North’s nuclear and missile programs are perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenges to the new leaders in Washington and Seoul.

President Donald Trump has alternated between bellicosity and flattery in his public statements about North Korea, but his administration is still working to solidify a policy to handle its nuclear ambitions.

Monday’s launch was the third ballistic missile launch by North Korea since South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in was inaugurated on May 10. He has signaled an interest in expanding civilian exchange with North Korea, but many analysts say he won’t likely push for any major rapprochement because North Korea has gone too far in developing its nuclear program.


Mr. Moon called a National Security Council meeting Monday morning to discuss the North’s launch. In a separate statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff warned North Korea’s repeated provocation would further deepen its international isolation.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who just returned from a G7 meeting in Italy, told reporters that “North Korea’s provocation by ignoring repeated warnings from the international society is absolutely unacceptable.”

The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement that it tracked a short-range missile for six minutes until it landed in the Sea of Japan.

Mr. Suga, the Japanese Cabinet Secretary, told reporters that the missile fell about 300 km north of the Oki islands in southwestern Japan and 500 km west of Sado island in central Japan.

Mr. Suga said Japanese officials will discuss North Korea with a senior foreign policy adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Yang Jiechi, who is scheduled to visit Japan later Monday. He said China has been increasingly stepping up and using its influence over North Korea and that the two sides will thoroughly discuss the situation.

Besides its regular ballistic missile test-launches, the North carried out two nuclear tests last year — in January and September. Outside analysts believe North Korea may be able to arm some of its shorter—range missiles with nuclear warheads, though the exact state of the North’s secretive weapons program is unknown.

Despite the missile launches, South Korea under Moon has made tentative steps toward engaging the North by restarting stalled civilian aid and exchange programs. It said last week it would allow a civic group to contact North Korea about potentially offering help in treating malaria, the first government approval on cross-border civilian exchanges since January 2016.

 

[Hindustani78]

The North Korean leader was pleased with the test, according to state media, and ordered its mass production.

The new anti-aircraft defense system is aimed at intercepting and destroying enemy's drones and rockets.

 

[Hindustani78]

North Korea fires ballistic missile on May 29

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20...-japans-exclusive-economic-zone/#.WS1t1zekLIU

North Korea on Monday fired an apparent short-range missile that is believed to have fallen into Japan’s exclusive economic zone — a move that prompted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to vow “concrete measures” in response.

The U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement later the same day that it had detected the launch of “a short-range ballistic missile” near the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, adding that it had tracked the missile for six minutes until it landed in the Sea of Japan.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told an emergency news conference early Monday that the missile, launched at around 5:40 a.m., is “believed to have landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles (370 km) from its coast, into the Sea of Japan.

Suga said the missile was estimated to have landed some 300 km off Shimane Prefecture’s Oki Islands. He said there were no reports of damage to planes or vessels in the area, adding that Japan filed a protest with North Korea, using “the strongest wording” possible to condemn the move.

“The firing of the ballistic missile . . . clearly violates resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council,” Suga said.

A top North Korean official told the BBC in April that the country will continue to test missiles despite international condemnation and growing military tensions with the U.S. and its allies.

“We’ll be conducting more missile tests on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis,” Vice Foreign Minister Han Song Ryol said at the time.

Monday’s test was the third launch in as many weeks.

While weekly missile tests might put a strain on the regime, regular launches could become a “new normal,” according to Shea Cotton, a research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California.

“I think this might become the new normal where North Korea tests a missile regularly,” Cotton said. “Perhaps not every week but maybe every two weeks. At least until something changes like some sort of diplomatic settlement or deal.”

Meeting with reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday, Abe said that Tokyo will “never tolerate” Pyongyang’s repeated provocations.

“To deter North Korea, we, together with the United States, will take concrete actions,” Abe said. He did not elaborate.

Abe said leaders of the Group of Seven developed nations, who wrapped up their annual meeting in Taormina, Sicily, on Saturday, have agreed that the North Korean issue is “one of the top-priority issues of the international community.”

At the summit, Abe also called for China and Russia to effectively use their influence with the North to rein in the isolated nation.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that he and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed in a 25-minute telephone conference that Tokyo and Washington will further ramp up pressure on China and Russia to play a larger role in curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile ambitions. He didn’t elaborate, however, on what specific actions he expects from the two nations.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said the ministry believes the missile — judging from the 400-km distance it flew — was a Scud or Scud variant. The ministry estimated that it had hit a maximum altitude of about 100 km.

“There is nothing about the way the missile flew that suggested its trajectory was in any way extraordinary,” Inada, said, ruling out the possibility it had been tested on either a “depressed” or “lofted” trajectory.

In an apparent bid to tout its quick response time, the Japanese government said that notification that the missile could fall into the EEZ came just 35 minutes after its launch, Kyodo News reported. It took Tokyo about 90 minutes on May 21 and 75 minutes on May 14 for the Defense Ministry to release information on those launches.

The launch also came the same day as China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, arrived in Japan for a three-day visit. He was scheduled to speak with Shotaro Yachi, head of the National Security Council, on Monday, according to Kyodo, with the launch likely to top their discussions.

Monday’s launch marked the 12th test-firing by the nuclear-armed country this year. It was the first time since early March that a North Korean missile has fallen within Japan’s EEZ and the fourth time in total. On March 6, three of four Scud ER (extended-range) missiles fired by the country landed inside the zone.

North Korean state-run media said those launches were part of rehearsal for striking U.S. military bases in Japan. Analysts said that the hypothetical target of that drill was U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

The North’s Scuds, which use liquid fuel, are known to have a range of 300-500 km. But it has recently developed the Scud-ER, which is capable of traveling up to 1,000 km, putting parts of Japan within range.

North Korea last test-fired a ballistic missile just eight days ago from an east coast site and on Sunday said it had tested a new anti-aircraft weapon supervised by leader Kim Jong Un.

Pyongyang said the May 21 test of the Pukguksong-2, a solid-fuel, medium-range missile capable of striking most of Japan, was “perfect” and that the weapon was ready to be deployed “for action.”

Abe characterized that launch as a “challenge to the world.”

Pyongyang, undeterred by multiple UNSC sanctions resolutions over its nuclear weapons and missile programs, continues to defy the international community with atomic and rocket tests.

There has been mounting speculation that Pyongyang will conduct a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, suggested by a New Year’s Day address in which the North Korean leader claimed that the country was in the “final stages” of developing such a weapon.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed that a launch of an ICBM by Pyongyang “won’t happen” on his watch.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://zeenews.india.com/world/nort...tinental-ballistic-missile-tests-2010807.html

Seoul: North Korea on Wednesday said it is ready to test launch intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), one day after the US successfully tested a defence system to intercept such projectiles.

The North Korean army is ready to conduct a real ICBM test at any time and place, if ordered by its leader Kim Jong-un, according to an article in the Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the country's ruling Workers' Party.

In his New Year address to the nation, Kim said the country was in the final phase of developing an ICBM that would allow it to target the US with a nuclear weapon in the future, with the aim of aiding the survival of the communist regime.


In the editorial cited by state news agency KCNA, which also included Pyongyang's analysis of the US test, the North said no foreign forces could stop its progress in becoming a nuclear and missile power in the East.

Pyongyang said it will continue to strengthen its self-defence capacities in view of the hostile policy of the US, and warned the Donald Trump administration to choose the "correct" option between life and death, Efe news reported.

Washington said on Tuesday it successfully intercepted a dummy ICBM on the country's west coast, amid escalating tensions with North Korea.

Repeated weapons tests by the North -- the last of which took place on Monday -- have led to increased tensions on the peninsula, and a heated exchange of rhetoric with the Trump administration, which has also hinted at possible preemptive strikes.

On Tuesday, Pyongyang said Washington was seeking to unleash a nuclear war, and accused it of sending atomic bombers close to its territory following the latest missile test.

 

[JanWar]

Lets hope nothing happens, dont want to be involved in WW3

 

[Hindustani78]

A pair of B-1B Lancer bombers soar over Wyoming in an undated file photo. (Reuters)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...north-korea/story-hBNj24qsm21L4oqdtAzUuO.html

The United States flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday in a show of force against North Korea, South Korean officials said.

The US often sends powerful warplanes in times of heightened animosities with North Korea, and flew B-1B bombers several times this year as the North conducted a series of banned ballistic missile tests.

Tuesday’s flights by B-1Bs came shortly after the death of a US college student who was recently released by North Korea in a coma following more than 17 months of captivity.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry said the bombers engaged in routine exercises with South Korean fighter jets aimed at showing deterrence against North Korea.

The US military said the bombers conducted two separate drills with the Japanese and South Korean air forces. It said the flights demonstrated solidarity among South Korea, Japan and the United States “to defend against provocative and destabilizing actions in the Pacific theatre.”

The United States stations tens of thousands of troops in South Korea and Japan.

The family of American college student Otto Warmbier said the 22-year-old died Monday, days after his release from North Korea. Analysts say his death will likely cast a shadow on relations between the US and North Korea and compound efforts by South Korea’s new liberal president to improve ties with the North.