SEOUL (Dispatches) -- U.S. Air Force F-35A stealth fighters arrived in South Korea on Tuesday on their first publicly announced visit since 2017 in a further escalation of tensions in the Korean Peninsula.
Joint military drills had been publicly scaled back in recent years, first in 2018 because of efforts to engage diplomatically with North Korea and later because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May, has sought to increase public displays of allied military power, including exercises, as part of his confrontational policy toward the North.
North Korea also appears to be preparing to test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.
The six F-35As will be in South Korea for 10 days, South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“The purpose of this deployment is to demonstrate the strong deterrent and joint defense posture of the U.S.-ROK alliance while at the same time improving the interoperability between the ROK and U.S. Air Force,” the ministry said, referring to South Korea by the initials of its official name.
The aircraft deployed from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said in a statement.
A USFK spokesperson said it was the first public deployment of the 5th generation fighter aircraft to South Korea since December 2017, but did not elaborate whether there had been unannounced visits.
South Korea has purchased 40 of its own F-35As from the United States, and is looking to buy another 20. The South Korean air force F-35As will be among the aircraft participating in the joint drills, USFK said.
North Korea has denounced joint exercises as well as South Korea’s weapons purchases as an example of “hostile policies” that prove U.S. offers to negotiate without preconditions are hollow.
The new development comes amidst growing tensions between China and the U.S., Russia and Japan, China and Japan, and North Korea and South Korea, following the election of President Yun’s regime and Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
North Korea, in October 2020, unveiled the Hwasong-17, anointed as the world’s largest Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), which it later test-fired in May this year.
Earlier last month, it test-fired a barrage of eight short-range ballistic missiles in 35 minutes, from at least four locations, including its western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near the capital.