Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers have flown a rare mission around the Korean Peninsula at the same time as the United States and South Korea conduct joint military exercises that have infuriated Pyongyang.
Russia, which has said it is strongly against any unilateral U.S. military action on the peninsula, said Tupolev-95MS bombers, code named "Bears" by NATO, had flown over the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, prompting Japan and Seoul to scramble jets to escort them.
The flight, which also included planes with advanced intelligence gathering capabilities, was over international waters and was announced by the Russian Defence Ministry on the same day as Moscow complained about the U.S.-South Korean war games.
The United States and South Korea began the long-planned joint military exercises on Monday, heightening tensions with Pyongyang, which called the drills a "reckless" step towards nuclear conflict. Some military experts regard the hulking Russian turboprop bombers, which made the flight near the Korean Peninsula, as a relic of the Cold War. But Russia has upgraded the aircraft since the Soviet fall and, since 2007, has used the planes to back its diplomacy with shows of force and to probe other countries' airspaces.
Japan has at least twice before this year been forced to scramble its jets to intercept Russian aircraft. The daily Izvestia newspaper reported in October last year that Russia was close to finishing setting up a new division of heavy bombers to patrol "the Japan-Guam-Hawaiian Islands triangle."