TENSIONS in the Far East rose again today as the US flew nuclear-capable bombers and stealth fighters over waters around North Korea.

B-52 bombers and F-22 fighters took part in joint drills with the South Korean military in a huge show of force aimed at intimidating Pyongyang — and likely China.

The exercises took place as North Korea denounced Japan’s recently announced security strategy, which doubles military spending and commits to a “counter-strike” capability that will see Japan develop the ability to bomb other countries, something the Japanese Communist Party has denounced as contrary to the country’s famed Peace Constitution.

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said the new strategy was a “foolish attempt to satiate Japan’s black-hearted greed” and would prompt Pyongyang to redouble its efforts to develop advanced intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles.

Japan occupied Korea from 1910-45, and both North and South Korea have expressed suspicion of Japanese rearmament. The latter said yesterday that it expected Japan to consult it over developments that affect the Korean peninsula.

China, which was invaded by Japan in the 1930s, is identified in the new security strategy as Tokyo’s “biggest strategic challenge.” It also criticised the rearmament plans, saying right-wing politicians were “hyping up the so-called China threat to find an excuse for military build-up.”

The US, which stations over 50,000 troops in Japan and over 30,000 in South Korea, has long pushed Japanese rearmament as part of developing a regional military alliance under its command akin to Nato’s role in Europe and the Middle East.

Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and among the most senior officials in the country, said today Pyongyang had tested a military reconnaissance satellite and dismissed South Korean claims the test was a ruse for a missile test, based on the low quality of the printed photos from the satellite indicating it would be no use for surveillance.

Ms Kim said the South’s intelligence was “imprudent and inadequate” and based only on material published in North Korean newspapers. She also claimed the North already had the ability to fire missiles that could reach the United States.