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After leaving their home base in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa it remains unclear how long the F-22 Raptors will stay in South Korea which usually does not host any aircraft of that type. Photo: AP

Show of power: US stealth jets fly over South Korea amid nuclear standoff with Pyongyang

North Korea

Four US F-22 stealth fighters flew over South Korea on Wednesday in a clear show of power against North Korea, a day after South Korea’s president warned of the North’s collapse amid a festering standoff over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

The high-tech planes capable of sneaking past radar undetected were escorted by other US and South Korean fighter jets.

Pyongyang will likely view the arrival of the planes as a threat as they are an apparent display of US airpower aimed at showing what the United States can do to defend its ally South Korea from potential aggression from North Korea.

The United States often sends powerful warplanes to South Korea in times of tension with North Korea. Last month it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea after North Korea defiantly conducted its fourth nuclear test.
A US soldier stands guard near a US F-22 stealth fighter at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. Photo: AFP

The international standoff over North Korea deepened earlier this month when Pyongyang ignored repeated warnings by regional powers and fired a long-range rocket carrying what it calls an Earth observation satellite. Washington, Seoul and others consider the launch a prohibited test of missile technology.

Foreign analysts say the North’s rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.

South Korea’s president on Tuesday warned North Korea faces collapse if it doesn’t abandon its nuclear bomb program, an unusually strong broadside that is certain to infuriate Pyongyang.

In a speech at parliament, President Park Geun-hye said South Korea will take unspecified “stronger and more effective” measures to make North Korea realise its nuclear ambitions will result only in accelerating its “regime collapse.”

READ MORE: South Korea’s President Park signals shift by invoking threat of ‘regime collapse’ against North Korea

Park made the speech while defending her government’s decision to shut down a jointly run factory park in North Korea in response to the North’s rocket launch. Pyongyang retaliated by expelling all the South Koreans there, put its military in charge of the area and cut off key communication hotlines between the Koreas.

It is unusual for a top South Korean official to publicly touch on such a government collapse because of worries about how sensitive North Korea is to talk of its authoritarian government losing power. Pyongyang has long accused Washington and Seoul agitating for its collapse.

After the rocket launch, Seoul announced that talks would begin with Washington on deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea and that the allies’ annual military drills in the spring will be the biggest ever.

The deployment of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, is opposed by North Korea, China and Russia. Opponents say the system could help US radar spot missiles in other countries.

Pyongyang has also called regular US-South Korea military exercises a rehearsal for a northward invasion. The allies say their drills are defensive in nature.

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