U.S.: B-2 bombers not a message to N. Korea

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon use of nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers to drop dummy munitions during military drills with South Korea was part of normal exercises and not intended to provoke a reaction from North Korea, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

He acknowledged, however, that North Korea's belligerent tones and actions in recent weeks have ratcheted up danger in the region, "and we have to understand that reality."

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, both Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the B-2 bombers were a message intended more for allies than for Pyongyang. The United States, Hagel added, must make it clear to South Korea, Japan and other friends in the region that "these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously, and we'll respond to that."

U.S. forces in Korea announced Thursday that two B-2 stealth bombers from an air base in Missouri dropped dummy munitions on a South Korean island range before returning home.

"They're telling the North Koreans, we can attack you in ways in which you can see us coming, and we can also attack you potentially in ways in which you cannot see us coming," said retired Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton, an intelligence expert on North Korea.

In recent weeks, Pyongyang has threatened to carry out nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul, South Korea. The bellicose rhetoric followed UN sanctions over North Korea's nuclear test last month and the U.S. military exercises.

Analysts see a full-blown North Korean attack as extremely unlikely, though there are fears of a more localized conflict, such as a naval skirmish in disputed Yellow Sea waters.