Stealth Bombers in South Korea Add Muscle to US Show of Force

Four F-22 Raptor stealth jets flew over South Korea on Wednesday in a U.S. show in the face of new North Korean nuclear and missile threats, and then landed there.

The fighter jets join the USS North Carolina attack submarine, which called recently in South Korea as part of a joint training exercise, according Yonhap, the country's largest news agency. The news agency said a B-52 bomber was also sent to South Korea after North Korea's latest nuclear test in January.

The website Foxtrot Alpha reported on Wednesday that the F-22As arrived at the Osan Air Base in South Korea and said the jets were "almost certainly" a part of the F-22 deployment at Yokota Air Base in Tokyo.

Yonhap said the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis will arrive in South Korea for planned South Korea-U.S. defense drills in March.

"With the deployment of the strategic weapons, the U.S. is sending a strong warning message to North Korea and demonstrating its commitment to the defense of South Korea," a South Korean official told the news agency.

North Korea claimed in early January that it successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb, with its leader Kim Jong Un saying in a statement that the test would "make the world ... look up to our strong nuclear country," said CNN.

Related Stories:

• North Korean Satellite Tumbling Uselessly in Orbit Nothing New, but How It Got There Matters
  
• North Korea Miniature H-Bomb Test Claim Setting Off Alarms