Powerful US bomber flies over S. Korea as standoff deepens

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing an anonymous military source, reported late Saturday that the North had started its own broadcasts, presumably to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean broadcasts.

United States Forces Korea said it had no knowledge of the matter, when asked about the Yonhap report.

A U.S. long-range heavy bomber flew over South Korea on Sunday, the U.S. military said, days after North Korea conducted its first alleged hydrogen bomb test in defiance of global sanctions.

The B-52 bomber left U.S. Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Sunday morning and arrived in the skies above Osan, Gyeonggi Province, at noon, armed with nuclear missiles and “bunker buster” bombs that are capable of bombarding North Korea’s underground facilities, according to Seoul and Washington.

At that time, the U.S. dispatched both a B52 and the more sophisticated B2 stealth bomber to South Korea in a show of military muscle against the North.

The tone of Kim’s comments, which sought to glorify him and justify the test, is typical of state media propaganda.

Responding to widespread worldwide condemnation of Wednesday nuclear test, Pyongyang said that it would be ” foolish” to demand that the DPRK scrap its nuclear program or halt its further development.

North Korea considers the South Korean broadcasts tantamount to an act of war.

Experts believe the North’s nuclear test, which produced a seismic tremor of 5.1, too small to be a proper hydrogen bomb test, was created to set the stage for a rare general meeting later this year of its ruling Workers’ Party, the first since 1980.

The North regularly accuses the United States and its ally South Korea of warmongering.

While the South’s broadcasts also include news and pop music, much of the programming challenges North Korea’s government more directly. “Countries run by dictatorships even try to control human instincts”.

The test has angered world powers, including the North’s key ally China, and the UN Security Council has said it will roll out new measures to punish the maverick state.

The B-52 is one of three components in the US “nuclear umbrella” system, along with inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

Wednesday’s nuclear test was Pyongyang’s fourth, though experts have questioned North Korea’s claim of the explosion having been triggered by a hydrogen bomb.

Although the B-52 has traditionally carried only nuclear and conventional bombs, it has since been remodeled to hold cruise missiles and nuclear air-to-surface missiles.