US military bombers, fighters fly over Korean Peninsula in show of force

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US, allies flex military muscle near North Korea

Simulate precision strikes against what the Pentagon calls North Korea's 'core facilities'; national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports

The U.S. military flew two B-1B supersonic bombers and two F-35 fighter jets over South Korea on Thursday in a show of force following North Korea's latest ballistic missile launch, U.S. and South Korean defense officials said.

The U.S. aircraft were participating in training with South Korean F-15 fighter jets, the officials said. The mission was in "direct response" to North Korea's latest test of an intermediate-range ballistic missile which flew over northern Japan, according to a statement from the U.S. Pacific Command.

Such flyovers are common when animosity rises on the Korean Peninsula, which is technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

A day after North Korea's missile test, The U.S. Defense Agency announced it had shot down a medium-range ballistic missile off the coast of Hawaii in a new test of its missile defense system at sea.

The test came after North Korea fired the missile from its capital Pyongyang that flew over Japan before plunging into the northern Pacific Ocean, an aggressive test-flight over the territory of a close U.S. ally that sent a clear message of defiance as Washington and Seoul conduct war games nearby.

Thursday's U.S. show of force followed a tweet from President Trump, suggesting he was growing impatient with North Korea after earlier expressions of hope for a dialogue with the communist country.

On Tuesday, Washington and its allies called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, but seemed to fall short on new ideas for stopping North Korea's nuclear and missile advances, which are increasingly putting the U.S. mainland within range.

"Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world," Trump said after the North's missile soared almost 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) into the Pacific Ocean, triggering alert warnings in northern Japan and shudders throughout Northeast Asia. "All options are on the table."

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this story.