Anchor: Two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers conducted a mission over the East Sea last week, according to a privately-operated flight tracker. The move may be interpreted as a warning to North Korea after it heightened tensions in the region following a slew of ballistic missile launches.
Celina Yoon has more.

Report: A private aviation tracker says two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers conducted a mission over the East Sea on Friday, with three KC-135R aerial tankers providing support for their flight.

Aircraft Spots said on Twitter that the bombers took off from Guam's Anderson Air Base. 

The B-52 bomber is among key strategic assets of the United States, along with intercontinental ballistic missiles and ballistic missile submarines.

The airplane can conduct independent wartime operations as far as 64-hundred kilometers away from its home base and carry up to 31 tons of munition with a maximum operational range of 16-thousand kilometers.

B-52s had been deployed often around the Korean Peninsula during times of high military tension, but such flights dropped off precipitously after Washington and Pyongyang held talks last year.

The recent deployment of the bombers is thus interpreted as a warning to North Korea for the multiple short-range ballistic missiles it fired off in recent months, including a submarine-launched ballistic missile test in early October.

According to Radio Free Asia, U.S. Vice Chief of Naval Operations Robert Burke said on Friday that North Korean submarine-launched ballistic missiles could be a “game changer” and may directly threaten the U.S. mainland.

The operation of the B-52 bombers may also be a warning to China and Russia following an incursion of their aircraft into South Korea's air defense zone during joint drills in July.

Aircraft Spots said the bombers conducted a mission not only in the East Sea but possibly the South China Sea as well.
Celina Yoon, KBS World Radio News.

[Photo : YONHAP News]