SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. strategic bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula Tuesday night in an apparent show of force against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday.
Two F-15K fighter jets of South Korea's Air Force conducted a joint exercise Tuesday night with two B-1B strategic bombers from the Andersen Air Force Base in the U.S. Pacific island of Guam, according to the JCS.
The long-range U.S. supersonic bombers entered the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ), before carrying out a simulated air-to-ground missile firing drill over the East Sea.
The U.S. bombers, escorted by the South Korean fighters, flew across the South Korean inland areas to stage another simulated air-to-ground missile firing exercise in the West Sea, the JCS said.
The mobilization of the U.S. strategic military assets to the peninsula came less than three weeks after another B-1B bombers flew at night in international airspace over waters off the DPRK's east coast on Sept. 23.
It apparently aimed to show force toward the DPRK, which strongly denounced the Sept. 23 night flight of the U.S. bombers and threatened to shoot down the strategic warplanes.
An official with South Korea's presidential Blue House told reporters on a customary anonymity that it was a part of the agreement between Seoul and Washington over the rotational deployment of U.S. strategic military assets to the Korean Peninsula.
The official said South Korea and the United States had already agreed to the rotational deployment.
Chung Eui-yong, top national security advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said at the meeting between President Moon and chiefs of opposition parties on Sept. 27 that the U.S. side had promised to expand the rotational deployment of strategic assets to areas near the peninsula.
