The US is to send stealth fighters to participate in a large-scale air combat exercise with South Korea next month, the Pentagon said yesterday, in a new show of force aimed at North Korea.
The massive five-day annual exercise comes as Washington pushes what US President Donald Trump has called a “maximum pressure campaign” against Pyongyang over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.
The exercise, named Vigilant Ace, starts on Dec. 4 with 12,000 US personnel and an unspecified number of South Korean personnel flying more than 230 aircraft at eight US and South Korean military bases.
Six F-22 Raptor stealth aircraft are to be deployed to South Korea for the exercise, a US Air Force spokesman told reporters.
The supersonic Raptor is one of the most advanced warplanes in the world, capable of providing what its maker Lockheed Martin calls “unprecedented air dominance.”
“This realistic air combat exercise is designed to enhance interoperability between US and Republic of Korea forces and increase the combat effectiveness of both nations,” the US Seventh Air Force said in a statement, referring to South Korea by its official name.
Pyongyang routinely condemns such exercises, labeling them preparations for war.
Local media reported that the US warplanes would conduct precision strike drills with South Korean fighters.
North Korea has carried out a flurry of missile tests this year — including intercontinental ballistic variants apparently capable of hitting the US mainland — and tested what it claimed was a thermonuclear weapon in September.
The tests have prompted shows of force and sanctions from Washington.
Trump on Monday declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, adding the country back to a US blacklist Pyongyang was removed from nearly a decade ago.
Earlier this month, the US flew two B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers over the Korean Peninsula as part of a joint exercise with Japan and South Korea.
That was followed by a joint naval drill involving three US aircraft carriers and seven South Korean warships, the first such triple-carrier exercise in the region in a decade.
The US also unveiled fresh sanctions that target North Korean shipping, raising the pressure on Pyongyang in a bid to make it abandon its nuclear weapons program.
Pyongyang on Wednesday said the listing was a “serious provocation,” warning that sanctions would never force it to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
China, the North’s sole ally, has also said the new US sanctions — which also target Chinese companies doing business with the pariah state — are “wrong.”
Russia on Thursday said that the US decision to add North Korea to its terror blacklist was a public relations move that could cause the situation on the peninsula to escalate into a global “catastrophe.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary