Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers are escorted by fighter jets from Japan and South Korea on July 11, 2025. (South Korean air force)
Two U.S. Air Force bombers, escorted by Japanese and South Korean fighter jets, conducted a joint flight near the Korean Peninsula on Friday — a move that immediately prompted unspecified threats of retaliation by North Korea.
The flight by the B-52H Stratofortress bombers, two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighters and two South Korean air force KF-16 Fighting Falcons marked the three countries’ third joint operation this year, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a Friday news release.
INDOPACOM said the flight demonstrates the three countries’ “collective ability to immediately respond to regional security challenges,” but North Korea described the exercise as a threat to regional peace.
The communist regime routinely criticizes South Korea’s military exercises with the United States and Japan and describes them as a rehearsal of an invasion.
“Irresponsible acts of the U.S., Japan and [South Korea] steadily heightening the level of tension and danger on the Korean Peninsula should be closely watched and deterred,” North Korea’s military said in a statement published Sunday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The statement also warned of unspecified “grave consequences” and that Pyongyang exercises a “sovereign right to take countermeasures against provocative military actions.”
“Our armed forces are in constant military preparedness to check the collective provocations by the U.S. and its vassal forces,” the statement said.
North Korea made similar comments in April, after the U.S. flew B-1B Lancers over the peninsula alongside South Korean fighter jets. The exercise was a “grave provocation” that raised military tension to an “extreme dangerous level,” North Korea’s military said April 17 via KCNA.
Friday’s flight took place four days after an undisclosed number of B-52H bombers arrived at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam as part of a rotational bomber task force mission.
Two U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers are escorted by fighter jets from Japan and South Korea on July 11, 2025. (South Korean air force)
The bombers, assigned to the 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., arrived July 8 for joint training and strategic deterrence missions, Pacific Air Forces said in a news release that day.
The bombers will take part in unspecified regional joint events, according to the release.
Spokespeople for PACAF and INDOPACOM did not immediately respond Sunday to email requests for comment and additional details.
The Air Force routinely deploys B-1Bs Lancer, B-52s and B-2 Spirit bombers to Guam and elsewhere for the global task force missions, which began in 2018 and have continued regularly since 2020.
“While the missions for each [bomber task force] may vary, the overall goal remains the same: assure allies and deter adversaries,” the Air Force Global Strike Command website states.
