Seoul — US heavy bombers and stealth jet fighters took part in a joint live fire drill in South Korea on Thursday, intended as a show of force against the North after its latest missile launch. "South Korean and US air forces conducted an air interdiction exercise in order to strongly cope with North Korea’s repeated firing of ballistic missiles and development of nuclear weapons," the South’s air force said. Two B-1B Lancer bombers from Guam and four F-35B stealth jet fighters from the Marine Corps’ Iwakuni air base in Japan conducted the drill. B-1B overflights of the peninsula from Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, infuriate the North, which cited them when it announced a plan to fire a salvo of missiles towards the island. It was one of the moves that fuelled spiralling tension in August, along with a new set of UN Security Council sanctions, US President Donald Trump’s apocalyptic warning of "fire and fury" and, culminating with the North firing a missile over Japan on Tuesd...

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