“Anytime Nuclear Operation – Performing a Global Strike”
Suspicion grows in US over ‘China deterring North Korean provocations’
On the 26th (local time), the United States sent a warning message to North Korea with an armed demonstration using B-2 Spirit strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. North Korea is widely touting its successful test of the Hwasong-17, a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting the US mainland.
The US Air Force’s 509th Bomb Wing released a video of the “Elephant Walk” on Facebook that day, a maximum armed combat exercise of eight B-2s at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. “The Elephant Walk and Sortie culminates with the annual Spirit Vigilance exercise at Whiteman Air Force Base,” the wing said, “and the exercise ensures that the United States Air Force is ready to conduct nuclear operations and global strikes anytime, anywhere.”
Elephant Walk is training where aircraft line up on the runway, arm themselves quickly in case of an emergency, and sortie in the shortest possible time. Equipped with stealth capabilities, the B-2 can carry B61 and B83 nuclear bombs, making it one of the top three strategic bombers in the United States along with the B-52 and B-1B. “This is a strong warning message to the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un,” Bruce Bennett, a senior researcher at the Land Research Institute, a US military think tank, told Voice of America (VOA).
In the United States, skepticism is growing about the possibility that China will persuade North Korea to stop provocations. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), in its editorial “UN Defender of North Korea,” said that “US President Joe Biden pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to dissuade North Korea from nuclear or missile tests and called it ‘hopeful ‘. But it seems that (reality) is not like that,” he criticized. “The defense of China and Russia embodies Kim Jong-un, and North Korea mocks the international response before the nuclear test,” he said.
Washington = Reporter Moon Byung-ki weappon@donga.com
