US stealth jets fly over S. Korea amid N. Korea standoff

Four powerful F-22 stealth jets arrived in South Korea on Wednesday, and two of them will be stationed at the U.S. Forces Korea’s Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province “for the time being”, a U.S. military spokesman said.

The high-tech “Raptor” stealth planes are the most capable air superiority fighters in the world, able to sneak past radar undetected.

He added that the United States has an “ironclad commitment” to the defence of South Korea. The Raptors were joined by South Korean F-15K Slam Eagles and U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons.

The latest flight and deployment comes about a week and a half after North Korea launched a long-range rocket.

On Tuesday, the South Korean president Park Geun-hye promised “strong measures” if North Korea continued to test its nuclear capabilities.

On February 7, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket carrying what it claimed to be a satellite, drawing renewed global condemnation just weeks after it carried out a nuclear test. Under UN Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from firing any kind of ballistic missile.

It is important for Japan to cooperate with other countries concerned, including the United States and South Korea, and increase its vigilance.

After the rocket launch, Seoul announced that talks would begin with Washington on deploying a sophisticated missile defence system in South Korea.

“So, North Korea needs to pay the necessary price, and the objective of ongoing discussions at the Security Council of adopting a new resolution is to stop North Korea from going any further down the path of developing nuclear weapons”, Wang said. The F-22s deployed at a United States airbase in Japan can fly to the Korean peninsula in about two hours. Zhang said this on the sidelines of the seventh high-level strategic dialogue between the foreign affairs ministries of China and South Korea, Xinhua reported.

The president volunteered to deliver the speech to the nation in an attempt to soothe the public uproar triggered by the North’s recent military provocations and the South’s decision to shut down the inter-Korean industrial park in Gaeseong.

THAAD, or the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense can track and destroy ballistic missiles at an altitude of 40 – 150 km. Of course, the goal of the sanctions is North Korea’s eventual nuclear disarmament, thereby having that country abandon plans of becoming a feared regional and global military threat. North Korea has previously dismissed such views.

Last month, a US B-52 heavy bmber flew over South Korea in the first military muscle flexing in response to North Korea’s fourth nuclear test a few days earlier.

The L.A. Times cites opinion polls that show the South Korean public does seem to be standing behind their president’s North Korea policy, but by a fairly narrow margin of 47 to 44 percent.