US deploys B-1B bomber for drills in S. Korea

The US on Wednesday deployed at least one B-1B bomber for joint bombing drills in South Korea for the first time in seven years, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing Seoul's military. During the exercise, the US bomber dropped Joint Direct Attack Munitions at an unspecified location in South Korea, while being escorted by South Korean F-15K fighter jets, the Defense Ministry said in a press release. US B-1B bombers last held such an exercise within South Korea in 2017, it said, adding that the bomber also staged joint air drills with South Korean F-35As and KF-16s, as well as US F-35B and F-16 fighter jets. However, 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. Signed in 2018, the suspended deal included setting up a land buffer zone, where artillery d rills and regiment-level field maneuvers are to be suspended, and maritime buffer zones, where artillery firing and naval drills are to be banned. Source: Kuwait News Agency