The U.S., South Korea and Japan staged joint aerial drills featuring a nuclear-capable bomber on Tuesday, following a North Korean ballistic missile launch earlier in the day. 

The allies’ first trilateral aerial exercise this year included U.S. B-52H strategic bombers and F-16 fighters, ROK F-15 fighters and Japanese F-2 fighters, Seoul’s defense ministry said in a press release.

The joint drills in the overlapping ROK and Japanese air defense identification zones near South Korea’s Jeju Island came after North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) on Tuesday morning.

Fired from the Pyongyang area, the missile flew around 370-400