South Korea: American B-1B bomber joins joint air exercises

A U.S. B-1B supersonic heavy bomber was due to take part in South Korea's extensive aerial exercises jointly conducted by Seoul and Washington on Saturday, extended after a record series of missile fire by North Korea.

"

," said an official from the South Korean Defense Ministry, without giving further details on this deployment.

The B-1B is a supersonic bomber that is barely detectable by radar and capable of flying at very low altitude.

Although it was originally designed to carry nuclear weapons, it has been used by the United States for exclusively conventional combat missions since the mid-1990s, indicates its manufacturer Boeing on its website.

It was notably used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

Read alsoShooting between the two Koreas: "Kim Jong-un always needs to be talked about to exist, it's tragically commonplace"

aerial

exercises

, which started on October 31, are the largest ever jointly organized by South Korea and the United States.

Initially scheduled until Friday, they have been extended until Saturday after the multiplication, by North Korea, of missile launches in recent days, and in particular the apparently failed launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the direction of from the Sea of ​​Japan.

On Friday evening, the South Korean army announced that it had deployed some 80 F-35A stealth aircraft after detecting 180 fighter jets flying in North Korean airspace, a new episode in the spectacular rise in tension on the Korean peninsula in recent times. last weeks.

The United States on Friday denounced the repeated firing of missiles by North Korea which "

" the UN Security Council, with the complicity according to them of Russia and China, allies of Pyongyang.

Disagreement at the UN

After attacking Russia and China, Washington, Paris, London, other non-permanent member states of the Security Council advocated in a joint declaration "

" in the face of the "

”.

China and Russia, whose relations with the West are at their lowest with the war in Ukraine, shunned this joint statement.

Their ambassadors criticized the military exercises between the United States and South Korea and accused Washington of wanting to "

".

Read alsoTension is rising between the two Koreas

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged, through his spokesperson, that "

".

He said he was "

", insisted his spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.

Pyongyang fired about 30 missiles on Wednesday and Thursday, including one that ended its course near southern territorial waters for the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953. South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol spoke of a "

".

North Korea has always viewed U.S.-South Korean military maneuvers as dress rehearsals for an invasion of its territory or an overthrow of its rulers.

Read alsoWhy is the shooting intensifying along the maritime border between the two Koreas?

" exercise

constitutes "

", denounced on Wednesday the North Korean regime which threatened Seoul and Washington to "

".

Analysts attribute Pyongyang's particularly angry reaction to the use of advanced F-35A and F-35B stealth aircraft during "

", seen as an ideal tool for carrying out

lightning "

" against North Korean leaders.

North Korea had already, in September, revised its nuclear doctrine to authorize itself to carry out preventive strikes in the event of an existential threat against the regime of Kim Jong

. of the North is "

", specifies the new doctrine.

Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that North Korea is about to carry out a nuclear test, which would be its seventh.