US Sends Reconnaissance Plane To Monitor North Korea

North Korea has recently stepped up weapons testing.

A US surveillance plane flew over South Korea on Tuesday, February 6, apparently on a monitoring mission for North Korea, amid heightened tensions over North Korea's continued weapons testing, Yonhap reports.

According to a number of aviation trackers, a US Air Force RC-135U Combat Sent aircraft flew over the Yellow Sea, the northern provinces of South Korea Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon, and over the East Sea after takeoff from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa.

The RC-135U collects and studies foreign military ground, sea and airborne radar signals.

The aircraft's deployment comes after a number of weapons tests Pyongyang has conducted this year, including the test of cruise missiles with “ultra-large warheads” on Friday, February 2.

Last month, a US RC-135W Rivet Joint aircraft flew over South Korea after North Korea said it was testing an underwater nuclear strike drone.