[Both B-52 and B-2 can launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles. The Pentagon used their training sorties over the Korean Peninsula to highlight the role the long-distance strategic bombers play as part of Washington’s “nuclear umbrella” over South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, North Korea’s successful launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its nuclear test last month were unsettling enough that several right-wing politicians began calling on their government to build nuclear arms.]
SEOUL, South Korea — The American military made a rare
announcement that two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers ran a practice
bombing sortie over South Korea on Thursday, underscoring Washington’s
commitment to defend its ally amid rising tensions with North Korea.
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| Military Blog |
The two B-2 Spirit bombers made a nonstop round trip from Whiteman
Air Force Base in Missouri, demonstrating the United States’ ability to
“provide extended deterrence to our allies in the Asia-Pacific region” and to
“conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will,” the American
command in the South Korean capital, Seoul, said in a statement.
It was the first time the American military publicly confirmed a
B-2 mission over the Korean Peninsula. As the bombers dropped inert munitions that
they carried 6,500 miles over the Pacific to an island bombing range off South
Korea’s west coast, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel conferred with his South
Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, on the phone, reaffirming the United States’
“unwavering” commitment to defend the South.
After suffering from the American carpet-bombing during the
1950-53 Korean War, North Korea remains particularly sensitive about American
bombers. It keeps most of its key military installations underground and its
war cries typically reach a frenetic pitch when American bombers fly over South
Korea during military exercises. The resulting fear and anti-American sentiment
is used by the regime to make its people rally behind the North’s
“military-first” leadership.
Both B-52 and B-2 can launch nuclear-armed cruise missiles. The
Pentagon used their training sorties over the Korean Peninsula to highlight the
role the long-distance strategic bombers play as part of Washington’s “nuclear
umbrella” over South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, North Korea’s successful
launching of a three-stage rocket in December and its nuclear test last month
were unsettling enough that several right-wing politicians began calling on
their government to build nuclear arms.
A news release from the South Korean Defense Ministry on Thursday
said that the “extended deterrence” Mr. Hagel reaffirmed for South Korea
included “nuclear umbrella” and “missile defense capabilities.”
The allies also agreed to develop “customized” plans to deal with
various types of threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear and other weapons of
mass destruction, it said.
North Korea has escalated its bellicose rhetoric since a Feb. 12 nuclear test.
It threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the United States and South
Korea for conducting joint military drills and supporting United Nations
sanctions against the North. In response, Washington has stood behind the new
government of President Park Geun-hye, South Korea's first female president, by
running B-52 bomber sorties over South Korea earlier this month and publicizing
them. It also signed an agreement last weekend to enhance consultation and
coordination of the allies' responses to North Korean provocations. Such
coordination became all the more important with growing North Korean threats;
under a mutual defense treaty, Washington is obliged to intervene should a
local skirmish expand into a full-blown war.
The Pentagon said the B-52 and B-2 training missions were part of
its Foal Eagle joint military drill with South Korea, which began on March 1
and will run through April 30. North Korea cited the threat of B-52 bombers
when it cut off its last remaining military hot lines with South Korea on
Wednesday and warned of more “substantial military actions.” The military hot
lines have been used to allow South Korean workers and cargo traveling to a
joint industrial park in the North Korean town of Kaesong to clear a border
crossing. The cross-border traffic operated normally on Thursday. About 420
South Korean commuters from Seoul entered Kaesong and 400 returned to Seoul as
North Korea gave them a travel permit through an economic liaison office in
Kaesong and the North Korean military did not stop them.
The Kaesong complex, which is an important source of income for
the financially struggling North Korean government, has survived years of
military tensions and United Nations sanctions. In Kaesong, 123 South Korean
companies employ 53,400 North Korean workers for an average monthly pay of
$144. They produced $470 million worth of textiles and other labor-intensive
goods last year. The fate of Kaesong is seen as a key test of how far North
Korea will take its threats.
NORTH KOREA CUTS OFF THE REMAINING MILITARY HOT LINES WITH SOUTH KOREA
[The last time North Korea severed all military hot lines, during joint United States-South Korean military drills in 2009, it allowed an inter-Korean economic liaison office in Kaesong to serve as a communication channel with Seoul, and South Korean workers could commute to Kaesong. The two Koreas continue to maintain hot lines between their civil aviation authorities.]
By Choe Sang-Hun
Amid tensions over the North’s third nuclear test last month and ensuing United Nations sanctions, North Korea
had already shut down Red Cross hot lines with South Korea and a communication
line with the American military command in South Korea. But the North’s
decision to cut off military hot lines with South Korea on Wednesday was taken
more seriously in Seoul because the two Koreas have used those four telephone
lines to control daily cross-border traffic of workers and cargo traveling to
the North Korean border town of Kaesong.
The two countries run a joint
industrial park at Kaesong, the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation that
has survived the political tensions of recent years. Seoul officials said 887
South Korean workers were in Kaesong on Wednesday. The traffic was running
normally on Wednesday and Thursday morning, with long lines of trucks crawling
through the border crossing, South Korean officials said, indicating that the
North Korean military did not go so far as to stop cross-border economic
exchanges.
“There do not exist any dialogue
channel and communications means between the D.P.R.K. and the U.S. and between
the North and the South,” said a North Korean statement sent to the South
Korean military by telephone and later carried by the North’s official Korean
Central News Agency. “Not words but only arms will work on the U.S. and the
South Korean puppet forces.”
D.P.R.K. stands for the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s official name.
The North’s action came a day after
its top military command ordered all of its missile and artillery units to be on
“the highest alert” and
ready to strike the United States and South Korea. It also vowed to take
“substantial military actions” to retaliate against joint United States-South
Korean military drills, which involved American B-52 bomber sorties over South
Korea.
The last time North Korea severed
all military hot lines, during joint United States-South Korean military drills
in 2009, it allowed an inter-Korean economic liaison office in Kaesong to serve
as a communication channel with Seoul, and South Korean workers could commute
to Kaesong. The two Koreas continue to maintain hot lines between their civil
aviation authorities.
“Under the situation where a war
may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military
communications,” the North said on Wednesday.
The North Korean action came
shortly after the South’s president, Ms. Park, stressed both firmness and
reciprocity in her nation’s policy toward the North.
“If North Korea provokes or does
things that harm peace, we must make sure that it gets nothing but will pay the
price, while if it keeps its promises, the South should do the same,” Ms. Park
said during a briefing with her government’s top diplomats and North Korea
policy makers. “Without rushing, and in the same way we would lay one brick
after another, we must develop South-North relations step by step, based on
trust, and create sustainable peace.”
Her new unification minister, Ryoo
Kihl-jae, South Korea’s point man on North Korea, later told reporters that his
government was willing to consider lifting trade embargoes imposed on the North
after the deadly sinking of a South Korean Navy ship in 2010,
but not before North Korea takes responsibility for the sinking, which killed
46 South Korean sailors.
Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo
attack, but the government in Pyongyang insists that it had nothing to do with
it.
“We keep our door open for
dialogue,” Mr. Ryoo said.
But on Wednesday, the Committee for
the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the North Korean counterpart to Mr. Ryoo’s
ministry, berated Ms. Park for warning a day earlier that the Pyongyang
government could ensure its survival only when it stops building nuclear
weapons while its people go hungry.
“This time her remarks have gone
beyond the line,” the committee said.
It said Ms. Park’s recent comments
were “utterly shocking” compared with her earlier indications that she would
not maintain the hard-line policy of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, whom she
replaced on Feb. 25.
“If she keeps to the road of
confrontation like traitor Lee, defying the warnings of the D.P.R.K., she will
meet a miserable ruin,” the committee said.
Also Wednesday, the North’s main
ruling-party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said it planned “substantial military
actions,” including “pre-emptive nuclear strikes” against the United States and
South Korea.
Despite its successful launching of a three-stage rocket in December, however, “North Korea
doesn’t have the capability to carry out this latest threat to attack U.S.
bases” in Hawaii, the United States mainland and Guam using long-range
missiles, said James Hardy, the Asia Pacific editor for IHS Jane’s Defense
Weekly.
The Pentagon recently announced
that it would ramp up its missile defense on the West Coast and Alaska, citing
the threat of North Korea’s KN-08 missiles, which were unveiled during a
military parade in Pyongyang last April.
This article
has been revised to reflect the following correction:
