Two U.S. strategic bombers planned to conduct a joint drill with South Korean fighter jets on Tuesday over the Korean Peninsula, according to local media reports.
An unnamed South Korean military source was quoted by local media as saying that two B-1B supersonic bombers would carry out a joint drill later in the day with South Korea's F-15K fighter jets.
The U.S. strategic bombers would make a sortie to the Korean Peninsula to show the United States will contain military threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the source was quoted as saying.
The B-1B Lancer bombers will be dispatched from the U.S. Andersen Air Force base in Guam in the Western Pacific. It reportedly takes about two hours for the bombers to get to the peninsula from the U.S. island.
The bombers would reportedly pass through the southern waters of South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju, before moving the East Waters of the Korean Peninsula and conducting the joint air drill with South Korean fighter jets.
The U.S. bombers allegedly planned to conduct mock bombing exercises at the Pilsung Range in Gangwon province, South Korea's eastern region.
The sortie followed the comments made by Moon Chung-in, a special advisor to South Korean President Moon Jae-in on unification, security and foreign affairs.
The special advisor said last week in Washington that if Pyongyang stops any further nuclear and missile activities, the deployment of U.S. military strategic assets and the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises can be scaled down through discussions with the U.S. side.
South Korea's presidential Blue House dismissed it as the scholar's personal view, not an official stance of the South Korean government.
President Moon is scheduled to visit Washington later this month for his first summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump for two days from June 29.
