The flights came after North Korea said it would attack American bases in the Pacific following a U.S.-led drive to impose sanctions on North Korea for its third nuclear weapons test.

The U.S. military said that its bombers had flown more than 6,500 miles to stage a trial bombing raid from their bases in Missouri as part of Foal Eagle war drills being held with South Korea.

"This mission by two B-2 Spirit bombers assigned to 509th Bomb Wing...demonstrates the United States' ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will," the United States Forces in Korea said in a statement.

The U.S. military announced on March 15 it was bolstering missile defenses in response to threats from the North, including a threat to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike against the United States.

The North has threatened U.S. "puppet" South Korea with war and the U.S. mainland with nuclear attack.

North Korea has put its armed forces on readiness to fight what it says are "hostile" war drills by the United States and South Korea. The U.S. says the annual drills are defensive.

Pyongyang has also cancelled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and cut all communications hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.

North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China, its one major diplomatic ally.

While the North has an armory of Soviet-era Scud missiles that can hit South Korea, its longer-range missiles remain untested.

Independent assessments of its missile strike force suggest that it may have the theoretical capacity to hit U.S. bases in Japan and Guam, but the North has not tested these missiles.

North Korea shelled a South Korean island in 2010 and is charged with the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel in the same year. Pyongyang denies it sank the ship.

Source: Reuters

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