US stealth jets fly over S. Korea amid N. Korea standoff

In a speech to the National Assembly, that seemed to have one eye on upcoming parliamentary elections, Park warned that South Koreans had, over the years, become “numb” to the threat from their northern neighbour, and said it was time to take a more courageous stand.

“It is a shift from an ideal North Korea policy to a realistic North Korea policy”, Mr Choi said.

Geopolitical risks will have a limited effect on South Korea’s economy and financial markets, the credit companies said, keeping the country’s sovereign rating outlook at stable.

Touching on talks between Seoul and Washington on deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea, Park said that negotiations on the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) deployment were part of measures to strengthen combined S. Korea-U.S. capability to deter the DPRK’s missile threats.

The rift between the United States and China appears to be widening after North Korea’s nuclear test, long-range missile launch and U.S. talks with South Korea about deploying a missile defense system on the Korean peninsula.

The four F-22 Raptors flew at a low altitude over U.S. Forces Korea’s Osan Air Base in Gyeonggi Province, 55 kilometers south of Seoul, in the latest of the allies’ continuing show of force after North Korea’s recent provocations. O’Shaughnessy, commander of United States 7th Air Force, told journalists.

“The US maintains an ironclad commitment” to help Seoul protect itself, O’Shaughnessy added. The F-22s deployed at a USA air base in Japan can fly to the Korean peninsula in about two hours.

The launch, which followed the North’s fourth nuclear test last month, aggravated already-strained ties between the rival Koreas.

Reuters reported Park had reversed her North Korea policy, mentioning Park’s comments that old policies would not be able to dissuade the North from scrapping its nuclear weapons.

In a speech, Kim said the launch gave confidence and courage to his people and dealt a “telling blow to the enemies seeking to block the advance of our country”, KCNA said, in an apparent reference to Seoul and Washington.

Without elaborating, Park said the North has diverted much of the Seoul payments to North Korean workers at the factory park to the Pyongyang leadership, which is in charge of nuclear and missile development. Park warned Tuesday that North Korea faces a collapse if it does not abandon its nuclear program, in unusually strong language that will likely infuriate Pyongyang.

In her speech on Tuesday, Park vowed stronger measures to make Pyongyang “realize bitterly that it can not survive with its nuclear weapons development and that (such development) will only speed up regime collapse”.

Relations with the South have deteriorated, with Seoul suspending operations of the jointly-run Kaesong industrial park.