U.S. flies bombers over Korea, plans missile defense test

Seoul, South Korea, from above — (Image credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

The United States Air Force flew bombers over the Korean Peninsula Thursday and Friday in a show of force responding to North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) theoretically capable of striking Alaska. B-1 Lancer bombers and U.S. F-16 fighters based in Guam were joined by planes from the South Korean and Japanese militaries to communicate the U.S. and her allies "are trained, equipped and ready to unleash the full lethal capability of our allied air forces."

The Pentagon is also planning to test its THAAD missile defense system in Alaska "in early July," officials told Reuters. THAAD, which is short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, is designed to intercept intermediate-range ballistic missiles.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.