US, South Korea discuss deployment of more ‘strategic assets’ after North’s

The official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea has claimed that affairs on the Korean Peninsula are being driven toward the brink of war because of a USA nuclear bomber.

South Korea and Japan used a military hotline for the first time after of North Korea’s test, South Korea’s defence ministry said, in a sign the North’s behaviour is pushing the two old rivals closer together.

South Korea said on Monday that its chief nuclear negotiator planned to meet his United States and Japanese counterparts on Wednesday, and the next day he would meet China’s nuclear envoy in Beijing.

Sunday’s overflight saw a B52 Stratofortress, which is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, briefly roar over the Osan Air Base, some 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of the inter-Korean border, the U.S. military and an eye-witness said.

During the visit to the air base where South Korea’s Air Force command and the U.S. Seventh Fleet command are located, the U.S. commander instructed efforts to keep defense readiness at the highest level against any possible DPRK provocations, according to Yonhap news agency report.

The vice-foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan are also expected to meet in Tokyo later this week.

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

The North responded by turning on its own speakers to drown out the noise, though they could hardly be heard across the border, South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said.

Despite its repeated threats, the North is claiming that it is building bombs – and missiles to carry them as far as the US mainland – exclusively as a self-defense measure, saying the downfalls of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi were due to dropping their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

South Korea’s air force operations commander Lee Wang-Keun added their air force is ready to punish any provocations firmly and strongly whenever, wherever, and in whatever shape it may be.

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

The B-52, flying out of Andersen Air Force Base on Guam, was joined by South Korean F-15 fighter aircraft and U.S. F-16 fighter aircraft. When Seoul Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

The North published a photo on Monday of leader Kim Jong-un posing formally with hundreds of scientists, workers and officials who participated in the latest test.

On the same day, North Korea forces reportedly restarted propaganda broadcasts in two sites in response.