SEOUL, South Korea – The United States, South Korea, and Japan held their first ever mixed aerial train Sunday in an effort to ship a tricky message to North Korea.
It’s not new for the United States to carry aerial drills with Japan or with South Korea. But the three nations had by no means held such an train collectively till Sunday.
That’s when a U.S. B-52 bomber flew alongside Japanese and South Korean fighter jets simply south of the Korean Peninsula.
Philip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, known as it a “new era” in protection ties.
Though Japan and South Korea are each shut U.S. allies, their bilateral ties are strained by historic disputes.
But in August, the three nations agreed to carry extra protection drills to counter North Korea.
It is especially important {that a} nuclear-capable B-52 bomber participated on this week’s drill, says Seoul-based scholar Park Won-gon.
Park says Pyongyang significantly fears strategic plane just like the B-52, as a result of it was bombers like this that devastated the North in the course of the Korean War.
North Korea has additionally blasted U.S.-Japan-South Korea army cooperation.
In an editorial Friday, North Korean state media known as the air drill an “intentional nuclear war” provocation.
North Korea has quickly expanded its variety of nuclear weapons in recent times, and now frequently threatens to conduct preemptive strikes if essential.