SEOUL
\nThe United States and South Korea held a joint air exercise involving US strategic bombers on Sunday, a day after North Korea fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a \u201csudden launching drill\u201d.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the exercise, where South Korea\u2019s F-35A, F-15K and US F-16 fighters escorted American B-1B bombers, demonstrated the allies\u2019 \u201coverwhelming\u201d defence capabilities and readiness posture.
\n\u201c(The exercise) strengthened the combined operation capability and affirmed the United States\u2019 ironclad commitment to the defence of the Korean Peninsula and the implementation of extended deterrence,\u201d the South\u2019s military said in a statement.
\nJapan\u2019s Fuji News Network said Japan and the United States were also likely to conduct a joint air drill as early as Sunday afternoon.
\nThe US-South Korea exercise comes a day after North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan\u2019s west coast, following a warning of a strong response to upcoming military drills by South Korea and the United States.
\nSouth Korea\u2019s military said it detected the missile at 5:22pm (0822 GMT). \u201cThe important bit here is that the exercise was ordered day-of, without warning to the crew involved,\u201d said Ankit Panda, a missile expert at the Washingtonbased Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
\nAnalysts say North Korea is likely to conduct more weapons tests, including a possible new solid-fuel missile which could help the North deploy its missiles faster in the event of a war.
\nNorth Korea\u2019s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned under UN Security Council resolutions, but Pyongyang says its weapons development is necessary to counter \u201chostile policies\u201d by Washington and its allies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL The United States and South Korea held a joint air exercise involving US strategic bombers on Sunday, a day after North Korea fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a \u201csudden launching drill\u201d. South Korea\u2019s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the exercise, where South Korea\u2019s F-35A, F-15K and US F-16 fighters escorted American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-314941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n