According to Seoul, on the same day, North Korea launched four short -range missiles towards the yellow sea.
Le Monde with afp
The South Korean army announced, Saturday, November 5, the afternoon participation of the US heavy bombardier B-1B in the vast aerial exercises in progress in South Korea, carried out jointly by Seoul and Washington.
“The South Korean and American air armies carried out joint exercises on November 5 [Saturday] on the Korean peninsula with two B-1B of the American Air Force, four F-35A South Korean and four American F-16s “, according to a statement from the South Korean staff published at the end of the maneuvers, Saturday afternoon.
The B-1B is a supersonic bomber that the American air force describes as the “spine of the American long-range bombing force”. Its deployment within the framework of maneuvers with South Korea will be considered a “significant threat” by North Korea, said AHN Chan-Het, North Korean questions.
New North Korean missile shots
On the same day, North Korea launched four short-range missiles towards the yellow sea, said the South Korean army. The latter detected this launch “from Donglim, in the province of North Pyongan, to the Western Sea, between 11:32 a.m. and 11:39 a.m. (between 3:32 and 3:39 in Paris)” said the ‘ South Korean joint staff in a press release, using another name for the yellow sea. Their “flight distance was detected at some 130 kilometers, at an altitude of approximately 20 kilometers and a speed of Mach 5”, adds the press release, five times the speed of the sound.
The “vigilant storm” air exercises (“vigilant storm”), which started on October 31, are the most important ever jointly organized by South Korea and the United States. Initially planned until Friday, they were extended until Saturday after the multiplication, by North Korea, missile fire in recent days, and in particular the apparently missed launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) towards from the sea of Japan.
North Korea has always considers American and South Korean military maneuvers as general rehearsals to an invasion of its territory or to a reversal of its leaders.
Friday evening, the South Korean army had already announced that it had deployed some eighty F-35A stealth aircraft after detecting 180 flying combat aircraft in North Korean airspace, new episode of the spectacular rise Tensions in the Korean peninsula in recent weeks.
The United States denounced, on Friday, repeated missiles by North Korea which “ridicule” the UN Security Council, with the complicity according to Russia and China, Allies of Pyongyang.