FOREIGN POLICY/MILITARY/NORTH KOREA: “The U.S. sent four of its most advanced fighter jets and a pair of B-1B bombers over the Korean Peninsula, alongside Japanese and South Korean jets, as a show of force in direct response to North Korea firing a missile over Japan.
The Air Force flyover Thursday [8-31-17], which included a bombing drill on a range in South Korea, came at the end of annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that have angered Pyongyang.
It is the first time the F-35B jets have been used in such a mission with the B-1B bombers over the peninsula, the U.S. Air Force Pacific Command said in a statement. It said the flyover—which also included two Japanese F-15 and four South Korean F-15K fighter jets—emphasized an ‘ironclad commitment’ to the defense of allies and the U.S., and maintained a readiness to give leaders ‘viable and ready military options.’
The latest move threatens to raise the temperature again on the peninsula, after North Korea’s launch Tuesday of an intermediate-range ballistic missile that soared over the Japanese city of Hakodate and landed in the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. said Thursday’s mission was in direct response to North Korea’s missile launch.”
-Jonathan Cheng, “U.S. Dispatches Stealth Jets, Bombers in Warning to North Korea,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 31, 2017 08:10am