A powerful US B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as a Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul and North Korea following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test. North Korea will read the fly-over of a bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons—seen by an AP photographer at Osan Air Base near Seoul—as a threat. Any hint of America's nuclear power enrages Pyongyang, which links its own pursuit of atomic weapons to what it sees as past nuclear-backed moves by the United States to topple its authoritarian government. The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 and US F-16 fighters and returned to its base in Guam after the flight, the US military said.
"This was a demonstration of the ironclad US commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland," said Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander US Pacific Command, in a statement. "North Korea's nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations." The B-52 flight follows a victory tour by Kim Jong Un to celebrate the country's widely disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test. There was no immediate reaction from North Korea's state media to the B-52 fly-over, which also happened after North Korea's third nuclear test in 2013. Kim, in his first public comments on the test, called it "a self-defensive step" meant to protect the region "from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists," per a dispatch Sunday from state-run Korean Central News Agency. "It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticize," Kim was reported as saying during his tour of the People's Armed Forces Ministry. (More North Korea stories.)
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