By Park Si-soo
The U.S. military is considering the deployment of strategic military equipment to South Korea to counter North Korea’s increasing military provocations, a presidential office official said Tuesday.
The statement came shortly after North Korea fired a long-range ballistic missile that flew over Japan and traveled nearly 2,700 kilometers early on Tuesday.. The missile fell about 1,180 kilometers east of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido.
The equipment includes the B-52, B-2 and B-1B bombers; F-35 fighter jets; and aircraft carriers usually housed at U.S. bases in South Korea, Japan or Guam.
Presidential spokesman Yoon Young-chan said South Korea had conducted bombing drills near the inter-Korean border shortly after the missile launch.
Four F-15K fighter jets staged a live-bombing drill against North Korea's leadership, the Air Force announced.
The aircraft dropped eight MK-84 bombs, each weighing about a ton, on a simulated target at the Pilseung Range in the eastern province of Gangwon.
The bombs hit the target accurately in an exercise aimed at sharpening the ability to destroy "the enemy's leadership" in an emergency.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-hwa agreed to consider tougher sanctions.