North Korea says the US has flown heavy strategic bombers over the Korean Peninsula and carried out bombing drills simulating attacks on major targets in the country.The B-1B bombers, escorted by US and South Korean fighter jets, flew on Thursday from a US Air Force base in Guam to conduct a "surprise" strike drill, North’s official KCNA news agency said on Friday.
"The frenzied US scheme of threats and blackmail, which aims to crush our republic with nuclear [weapons], continues in November as it did in October," the KCNA said.
The US Air Force later said that two Guam-based US B-1B bombers, accompanied by fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, carried out an exercise in the vicinity of the Korean peninsula on Thursday.
"The bilateral continuous bomber presence (CBP) mission was planned in advance ... and was not in response to any current event," the Air Force said in a statement.