Pentagon: US bombers fly off east coast of the DPRK

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US bombers and fighter escorts flew off the coast of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Saturday in a show of force against its nuclear weapons program, escalating already sky-high tensions.

The DPRK's foreign minister, meanwhile, assailed US President Donald Trump at the United Nations, deriding him as a "mentally deranged" leader whose threats had increased the chances of military confrontation.

Trump and the DPRK’s leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged increasingly bellicose rhetoric in recent days, as international alarm mounts over Pyongyang's weapons ambitions - including a hint this week that the country is considering detonating an H-bomb over the Pacific.

US aircraft conduct a mission over the Korean Peninsula, flew off the east coast of the DPRK on September 23, 2017. /AFP Photo

US bombers have carried out similar flights before, as the US and the international community struggle to rein in the DPRK's weapons programs.

But in a new stage for such show of force operations, the Pentagon stressed this was the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the DPRK and Republic of Korea (ROK) that any US fighter or bomber has flown off the DPRK's coast in this century.

"This mission is a demonstration of US resolve and a clear message that the president has many military options to defeat any threat," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said.

"We are prepared to use the full range of military capabilities to defend the US homeland and our allies."

The Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flown Saturday are based in Guam, and were accompanied by F-15C Eagle fighter escorts from Okinawa, Japan, White said. They flew over international waters off the east coast of the DPRK.

This week saw a blistering war of words between Kim and Trump, with the US leader using his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly to warn that Washington would "totally destroy" the DPRK if America or its allies were threatened.

Source(s): AFP