North Korea fires barrage of rhetoric as US flies bombers, stealth jets

The United States flew nuclear-capable bombers and advanced stealth jets near the Korean Peninsula for joint drills with South Korean warplanes as the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un derided doubts about her country’s military and threatened a full-range intercontinental ballistic missile test.

The deployment of the US B-52 bombers and the F-22 stealth fighter jets were part of an agreement to protect South Korea with all available means, including nuclear, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.

The drills, which also included F-35 and F-15 fighter jets from South Korea, took place in the waters southwest of Jeju island, the ministry said. It said that the US F-22 jets were deployed in South Korea for the first time in four years and will stay throughout this week for training with South Korean forces.

The drills were held after North Korea claimed to have launched rockets to test its first spy satellite under development and tested a solid-fueled motor to be used on a more mobile intercontinental ballistic missile in the past several days.

North Korea has already performed a record number of missile tests as a warning over the previous US-South Korea military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. There are concerns it may react to the latest aerial training by the allies with a new round of missile tests.

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Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, used a slew of derisive terms — such as “malicious disparaging”, “rubbish”, and “dog barking” — when she dismissed the outside assessments that cast doubt on its developmental spy satellite and long-range missiles.

North Korea said its rocket launches on Sunday were tests of its first military reconnaissance satellite and released two low-resolution photos of South Korean cities as viewed from space. However, some civilian experts in South Korea and elsewhere said the images were too crude for surveillance and that the launches were likely a cover for North Korea’s missile technology. South Korea’s military maintained North Korea fired two medium-range ballistic missiles.

“Didn’t they think their assessments are too inadequate and imprudent as they commented on our satellite development capability and related preparations only with two photos that we’ve published in our newspaper,” Kim Yo Jong, a senior ruling Workers’ Party official, said in a statement carried in state media.

A spy satellite was among several high-tech weapons systems Kim Jong-un said last year that North Korea needed to deal with US-led military threats. Other weapons Kim wants to develop are multi-warhead missiles, solid-fueled long-range missiles, underwater-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-powered submarines and hypersonic missiles.

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His sister also dismissed the South Korean government’s assessment that North Korea still has key remaining technological hurdles to overcome for functioning ICBMs that can reach the US mainland — such as the ability to protect its warheads from the harsh conditions of atmospheric reentry.

“I think it’s better for them to stop talking nonsense, behave carefully and think twice,” she said.

Whether North Korea has a reliable arsenal of nuclear-armed missiles is a source of debate. But North Korea has repeatedly argued its tests of missiles capable of reaching the US, and its allies have confirmed warheads can survive atmospheric reentry and other challenges.

READ MORE: DPRK fires two ballistic missiles: South Korea

All of North Korea’s ICBM tests have been performed at a steep angle to avoid neighbouring countries. However, some experts have said without the standard-trajectory launch of ICBMs, the reliability of North Korean weapons cannot be guaranteed.

Touching upon those doubts, Kim Yo Jong suggested North Korea might fire an ICBM at a normal trajectory, a launch that could be considered a much more significant threat to the US as the weapon would fly toward the Pacific Ocean.

“I can clear up their doubt about it. They will immediately recognise it in case we launch an ICBM in the way of real angle firing straight off,” she said.

Kim, whose official title is ‘vice department director’ at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, is considered the North’s most influential official after her brother, according to South Korea’s spy service.