North Korea has threatened to shoot down U.S. bombers flying near the Korean Peninsula, but it would have difficulty matching its words with action given aging air defense systems mostly dating to the Cold War, military experts said.
In intensifying rhetoric between the United States and North Korea during the past week, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would "destroy" the country if it threatened the U.S. or its allies. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho responded that Trump had "declared war" and that Pyongyang reserved the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. bombers, even if they were not in its airspace.
In a show of force on Saturday, U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers escorted by fighters flew east of North Korea, in what the Pentagon said was the farthest north of the Demilitarized Zone that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century.