US F-22 Jets Fly Over S Korea amid Tensions

Local Editor

Four US stealth fighters flew Wednesday over South Korea, in what the local media said was a show of force that comes amid Seoul's standoff with Pyongyang.

Relatively, the Yonhap news agency reported that the F-22 Raptor jets were spotted passing at a low altitude over the US Osan airbase, some 35 miles south of Seoul. They were joined by four US and other four Korean fighters.

Furthermore, the agency cited its military sources as saying that only two stealth planes would be deployed in South Korea "for a while." The other two jets will return to their home base in the United States.

In the context, US Air Force General Terrence O'Shaughnessy told reporters at a press briefing after the flyover that F-22s were a sign of the United States' "ironclad commitment" to protect its South Korean ally.

Meanwhile, tensions between the North and South escalated in January after Pyongyang tested a nuclear bomb and launched a long-range missile earlier this month.

Earlier Monday, the USS North Carolina attack submarine arrived at the southern port of Busan for joint training with the South Korean navy.

A nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, is also scheduled to join the annual South Korea-US military exercise slated for March.

North Korea followed its latest nuclear test with a long-range rocket launch on February 7 that was widely condemned as a ballistic missile test banned under UN resolutions.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team