Photo : YONHAP News / Joint Chiefs of Staff
South Korean and U.S. military forces conducted a large-scale aerial exercise over the Yellow Sea and central inland areas on Thursday, a response to the launch of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) earlier in the day.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said the drill saw the participation of some 110 aircraft, including F-35A stealth aircraft and F-15K fighter jets from South Korea’s Air Force and F-35B and A-10 fighter jets from U.S. forces stationed in South Korea and Japan.
The JCS released an image in which an F-15K blasts a target that simulates a North Korean transporter erector launcher.
The North apparently fired its ICBM from a transporter erector launcher Thursday morning.
The JCS said the exercise demonstrated the allies’ combined defense capabilities and readiness to overpower enemy forces, including its readiness to neutralize nuclear and missile threats from the North.