US to test THAAD amid North Korea tensions
The US Missile Defense Agency said Friday it would soon test an anti-ballistic missile system, days after North Korea demonstrated its arsenal was capable of striking parts of Alaska.
The announcement came as US bombers carried out a rare live fire drill in South Korea yesterday, flying close to the DMZ in a show of force, the South's defence ministry said.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to be tested is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight.
The MDA said the test against a ballistic missile target would be conducted at the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska in Kodiak, Alaska.
The US military this year began deploying THAAD to South Korea, a move that infuriated China, which has argued the deployment would further destabilize the situation on the Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said long-range heavy bombers flew close to the tense and heavily militarised land border with the North before turning back.
The exercise by two B-1B Lancers, flown from Andersen Air Base in Guam, was part of a 10-hour mission with South Korean and Japanese fighter jets in response to a "series of increasingly escalatory actions by North Korea including the intercontinental ballistic missile" on Tuesday, US Pacific Air Forces said
Four US and South Korean jet fighters joined the live fire drill, which was conducted at a range in Yeongwol County, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the inter-Korean border, the South's air force said.
The long-range heavy aircraft each dropped a 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) laser-guided bunker-busting smart bomb, Yonhap said.
The US statement said the B-1Bs released "inert" weapons at the Pilsung Range.
The drill simulated the two US bombers destroying enemy ballistic missile batteries and South Korean jets mounting precision strikes against underground enemy command posts, the South's air force said.
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