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 seen by an Associated Press photographer before they landed at Osan Air Base near Seoul. They 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 US 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, and last month sent a powerful nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea after North Korea defiantly conducted its fourth nuclear test. 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.