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| ▲ This file photo, provided by the defense ministry on March 3, 2023, shows a U.S. B-1B being escorted by South Korean fighter jets in an air exercise that took place over the Yellow Sea and above South Korea's central region. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
S Korea-US-air drills
U.S. B-1B bomber holds joint bombing drills in S. Korea: defense ministry
SEOUL, June 5 (Yonhap) -- The United States on Wednesday deployed at least one B-1B bomber for joint bombing drills in South Korea for the first time in seven years, the defense ministry said, amid heightened tensions over the North's trash balloon campaign and GPS jamming attacks.
During the exercise, the U.S. bomber dropped Joint Direct Attack Munitions at an unspecified location in the country, while being escorted by South Korean F-15K fighter jets, according to the ministry.
U.S. B-1B bombers last held such an exercise in South Korea in 2017.
The ministry said the bomber also staged joint air drills with South Korean F-35As and KF-16s, as well as U.S. F-35B and F-16 fighter jets. It did not specify the number of B-1B bombers mobilized.
The drills took place amid heightened tensions over the North's provocative acts in recent days, including its sending of trash-carrying balloons into the South, which prompted Seoul to fully suspend a 2018 inter-Korean military pact on Tuesday.
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