South Korea: US may send more strategic weapons to Korean peninsula

The B-52 was escorted by F-15k fighter jets from the South Korean Air Force and US F-16 fighters based in South Korea.

“The speedier-than-expected deployment of a USA strategic asset shows the US intention that it will retaliate severely if North Korea makes further provocations”, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted a South Korean military official as saying Monday.

“The bomber, which is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was accompanied by two fighter planes from the USA and South Korea”, NPR’s Elise Hu reports from Seoul.

“I want you to maintain the highest level readiness from a long-term view as joint military exercises are coming up”, Scaparrotti told US and South Korean forces on a visit to a base – apparently referring to joint annual military exercises that usually begin in February or March and invariably provoke an angry reaction from North Korea.

South Korea has resumed cross-border propaganda broadcasts, which the North Korean government considers an act of war.

The talks, to be held Wednesday in Seoul, come about a month after Ambassador Sung Kim, U.S. special representative for North Korea policy; Hwang Joon-kook, South Korea special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs; and Japanese delegate Kimihiro Ishikane met in Washington, D.C., in December.

Such is the importance of ideology in the reclusive North that the previous round of inter-Korean psychological warfare pressured Pyongyang into last August’s landmark cooperation deal – albeit not before an exchange of fire.

Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), on Monday visited the air force base in Osan, 40 km south of Seoul, along with South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Lee Sun-Jin. That could hinder efforts for stronger United Nations sanctions as South Korea seeks meetings with neighbouring nations to draw support for fresh UN action.

It was escorted by a South Korean and an American jet.

The Kaesong industrial estate opened in 2004 and now hosts more than 120 South Korean companies which employ some 53,000 North Korean workers.

The last time the US sent a nuclear-capable bomber over the area, the crisis steadily fizzled. The B-52 returned to Guam after it completed its flight over South Korea. “The North Korean regime has survived for more than 65 years, but internal economic and political strains could eventually lead to a sudden collapse”.

The North’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

South Korea has blocked civilians from visiting a tourist observatory and other locations near the border with North Korea in response to tensions following the North’s purported nuclear test.