Show of power: US stealth jets fly over South Korea amid nuclear standoff with Pyongyang

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After leaving their home base in Japan’s southern prefecture of Okinawa it remains unclear how long the F-22 Raptors will stay in South Korea which usually does not host any aircraft of that type. Photo: AP

Published: 1:49pm, 17 Feb 2016Updated: 1:49pm, 17 Feb 2016

Four US F-22 stealth fighters flew over South Korea on Wednesday in a clear show of power against North Korea, a day after South Korea’s president warned of the North’s collapse amid a festering standoff over its nuclear and missile ambitions.

The high-tech planes capable of sneaking past radar undetected were escorted by other US and South Korean fighter jets.

Pyongyang will likely view the arrival of the planes as a threat as they are an apparent display of US airpower aimed at showing what the United States can do to defend its ally South Korea from potential aggression from North Korea.

The United States often sends powerful warplanes to South Korea in times of tension with North Korea. Last month it sent a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber to South Korea after North Korea defiantly conducted its fourth nuclear test.

A US soldier stands guard near a US F-22 stealth fighter at the Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. Photo: AFP

The international standoff over North Korea deepened earlier this month when Pyongyang ignored repeated warnings by regional powers and fired a long-range rocket carrying what it calls an Earth observation satellite. Washington, Seoul and others consider the launch a prohibited test of missile technology.

Foreign analysts say the North’s rocket launch and nuclear test put the country further along it its quest for a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.