US Planning North Korea Bombing? Bomber Flies Over South In Latest Emergency Drill

The United States flew one of its most powerful long-range bombers, with South Korea fighter jets by its side, over the Korean peninsula in a training directed at the North’ defense and nuclear proliferation on Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Originally, the plan was to send two B-1B bombers – capable of carrying the largest conventional of guided and unguided payloads - into flight for a simulation bombing, but one of them had a “mechanical” issue, according to the report. The U.S. Navy also dispatched its USS Columbus, a nuclear-powered submarine, as well as the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

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"Through this exercise, the South Korean and US Air Forces demonstrated their strong deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats," the South Korean Air Force said in a statement.

The training was conducted in a matter of mere hours after North Korea’s latest missile test failed Wednesday morning, NBC News reported citing U.S. military and South Korea officials.

"A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch," U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Dave Benham said in a statement. "We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment. We continue to monitor North Korea's actions closely."

It was not immediately known what kind of missile Kim Jong Un’s regime tested, but it was just the latest in a slew of missile and nuclear tests that have put the region and the U.S. on high alert for much of the last two years.

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The bomber was accompanied by squadrons of South Korea’s F-15K and two KF-16 fighter jets and flew over the island of Jikdo, located in the Yellow Sea west of the peninsula, and then went back to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.

"Working and training side-by-side with our ROK partners increases our ability to integrate air operations more effectively in order to deter aggression in the region," Pacific Air Forces bomber operations chief and Maj. Ryan Simpson said in a press release. "As an added bonus, the ROK (Republic of Korea) offers an excellent training environment for increasing the capability of our bomber crews."