US Air Force unleashes supersonic bombers in ‘North Korea nuke drill’
DONALD Trump ‘is to order a military strike against North Korea within a year’ after Kim Jong-un’s military boasted it had fired a ballistic missile capable of hitting the US.
Senior military sources in Washington have reportedly claimed Pentagon officials have laid out plans to obliterate a nuclear weapons facility operating deep within a mountain range inside the rogue state.
The news comes hours after the US flew two supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea.
The B-1 bombers were escorted by South Korean fighter jets as they performed a low-pass over an air base near the South Korean capital of Seoul before returning to the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam.
The US Air Force said the mission was a response to consecutive ICBM tests by Kim this month.
Analysts say flight data from the second test conducted Friday night showed that a broader part of mainland America, including Los Angeles and Chicago, is now in range of Pyongyang’s weapons.
“North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” said Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander.
“Diplomacy remains the lead. However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario.”
He added: ” If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing.”
The United States often sends powerful warplanes in times of heightened animosities with North Korea.
B-1 bombers have been sent to South Korea for flyovers several times this year in response to North Korea’s banned missile tests, and also following the death of a US college student after he was released by North Korean in a coma.
The Hwasong-14 ICBM, which the North first tested on July 4, is the highlight of several new weapons systems Pyongyang launched this year.
They include an intermediate range missile the North says is capable of hitting Alaska and Hawaii and a solid-fuel midrange missile, which analysts say can be fired faster and more secretly than liquid-fuel missiles.
Any future military action by Trump, which could spark retaliation attacks from dictator Kim, would be a major step towards all-out war to stop North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, reports the Mail on Sunday.
President Trump has vowed to ‘take all necessary steps’ to ensure the security of the US and its allies.
And a top military expert has revealed exactly how the US military will ‘take out’ North Korea’s nukes if Donald Trump gives the green light for deadly strikes.