A U.S. B-1B bomber on Wednesday joined large-scale U.S.-South Korean military exercises that North Korea has denounced as pushing the peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, as tension mounts between the North and the United States.
The bomber flew from the Pacific U.S.-administered territory of Guam and joined U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters in the annual exercises, which run until Friday.
The drills come a week after North Korea said it had tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States, as part of a weapons programme that it has conducted in defiance of international sanctions and condemnation.
Asked about the bomber’s flight, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular news briefing: “We hope relevant parties can maintain restraint and not do anything to add tensions on the Korean peninsula.” KCNA said on Tuesday that the exercises in which the bomber took part are “simulating an all-out war”.
The drills coincide with a rare visit to the North by UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman.
North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk met Mr. Feltman on Wednesday in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, and discussed bilateral cooperation and other issues of mutual interest, KCNA said.
Mr. Feltman, a former senior U.S. State Department official, is the highest-level UN official to visit North Korea since 2012.
The military exercises, called “Vigilant Ace”, are designed to enhance joint readiness and operational capability of U.S. extended deterrence, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
