US deploys B-52 bomber for joint drill with South Korea

The U.S. and South Korea conducted an air training exercise on Monday and deployed a B-52 long-range bomber plane in the skies of the Korean Peninsula, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense.

The Ministry of National Defense posted a video of the combined air drills on Twitter and YouTube.

The Boeing-built B-52H strategic bomber plane is capable of flying at high altitudes and subsonic speed and can drop nuclear bombs.

The plane is considered the backbone of the U.S. bomber plane force.

Monday’s air drills come as the U.S. and South Korea are stepping up military exercises to deter North Korean aggression after Pyongyang test-fired an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles last year and ordered an increase of its nuclear arsenal.

Last week, both the U.S. and South Korea announced they will hold the largest joint military drills in the region in five years starting on March 13, for an 11-day period.

The drills will see both U.S. and South Korean forces conduct air, land, sea, space, cyber and special operations military exercises.

Those exercises are likely to infuriate North Korea, which sees them as a threat to its national security and has historically reacted with the test-firing of ballistic and cruise missiles.