The United States deployed a B-52 bomber over its ally South Korea on Sunday, in a show of force following North Korea's nuclear test last week and will consider sending an aircraft carrier to the region next month.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said it was possible that a carrier would join a US-South Korea joint naval exercise to send a warning message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who said his country conducted a hydrogen bomb test as a self-defence step against what it said was a US threat of nuclear war.
North Korea's fourth nuclear test angered both the United States and China, although the US government and weapons experts doubt the North's claim that the device was a hydrogen bomb.
The B-52, based in Guam and capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was joined by two fighter planes, a US F-16 and a South Korean F-15, in a low flight over Osan Air Base near Seoul, before returning to Guam, the US military said in a statement. The flight was "in response to recent provocative action by North Korea", it said.
"The United States remains steadfast in its commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and to maintaining stability on the Korean Peninsula, to include
extended deterrence provided by our conventional forces and our nuclear umbrella," said US Lt. Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy.
Experts believe the North's nuclear test, which produced a seismic tremor of 5.1, too small to be a proper hydrogen bomb test, was designed to set the stage for a rare general meeting later this year of its ruling Workers' Party, the first since 1980.
After the North's last test, in 2013, the United States sent a pair of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers over South Korea.
Technical state of war
At the time, the North responded by threatening a nuclear attack on the United States.
The two Koreas remain in a technical state of war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and the United States has about 28,500 troops based in South Korea.
Earlier on Sunday, North Korea's state news agency KCNA quoted Kim as saying no one had the right to criticise its nuclear tests.
"The DPRK's H-bomb test ... is a self-defensive step for reliably defending the peace on the Korean Peninsula and the regional security from the danger of nuclear war caused by the US-led imperialists," it quoted Kim as saying.
The North's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticise," he said.
Kim's comments were in line with the North's official rhetoric blaming the United States for deploying nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula to justify its nuclear programme but were the first by its leader since Wednesday's blast.
The United States has said it has no nuclear weapons stationed in South Korea.
Kim noted the significance of the timing of the test as being held in the year of the party congress, "which will be a historic turning point in accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche," according to KCNA.
Juche is the North's home-grown state ideology that combines Marxism and extreme nationalism established by the state founder and the current leader's grandfather, Kim Il Sung.
KCNA said Kim made the comments on a visit to the country's Ministry of the People's Armed Forces.
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