The National Intelligence Service(NIS) has confirmed that North Korea did not take any response measures when U.S. B-1B Lancer bombers flew in international airspace off North Korea's eastern coast last Saturday.
 
The National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee Chairman Lee Cheol-woo told reporters that the NIS made the confirmation during a meeting with the parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
 
Lee said it appears that the North did not take any steps because it had not foreseen the deployment given that the B-1Bs were deployed around midnight and as they had not appeared clearly on the North’s radars.
 
Lee quoted the NIS as saying that the North later tightened its surveillance along the east coast.
 
The U.S. military reportedly told the NIS that the North was probably very surprised by the appearance of the bombers and the reason Pyongyang has not issued a response is because it consulted the matter with China and Russia. The U.S. military had also said that it revealed the flight path of the B-1Bs because the North appeared not to know the trajectory.