U.S. F-22 stealth jets join South Korea drills amidst North Korea threats
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The
United States sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea on Sunday to
join military drills aimed at underscoring the U.S. commitment to
defend Seoul in the face of an intensifying campaign of threats from
North Korea. The advanced, radar-evading F-22 Raptors were deployed to Osan Air Base,
the main U.S. Air Force base in South Korea, from Japan to support
ongoing bilateral exercises, the U.S. military command in South Korea
said in a statement that urged North Korea to restrain itself.
"(North Korea) will achieve nothing by threats or provocations, which
will only further isolate North Korea and undermine international
efforts to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia," the statement
said.
Sabre-rattling on the Korean peninsula drew a plea for peace from Pope
Francis, who in his first Easter Sunday address called for a diplomatic
solution to the crisis on the Korean peninsula.
"Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be
overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow," he said, speaking
in Italian.
Tensions have been high since the North's young new leader, Kim Jong-un,
ordered a nuclear weapons test in February, breaching U.N. sanctions
and ignoring warnings from North Korea's closest ally, China, not to do
so.
That test, North Korea's third since 2006, drew further U.N. and
bilateral sanctions designed to pressure the impoverished North to stop
its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang responded to the new steps by
ratcheting up warnings and threats of war.
North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South
Korea, but Seoul and its ally the United States played down the
statement from the official KCNA news agency as the latest in a stream
of tough talk from Pyongyang.
In a rare U.S. show of force aimed at North Korea, the United States on
Thursday flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over
South Korea.
On Friday, Kim signed an order putting the North's missile units on
standby to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific,
after the stealth bomber flights.
The F-22 jets will take part in the annual U.S.-South Korea Foal Eagle
military drills, which are designed to sharpen the allies' readiness to
defend the South from an attack by North Korea, the U.S. military said.