US, SoKor discuss tougher sanctions on North
SEOUL (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and South Korea’s foreign minister agreed to consider tougher sanctions against North Korea following the North’s launch of a ballistic missile that flew over Japan yesterday, South Korea said.
Yoon Young-chan, a spokesman for the presidential Blue House in Seoul, told a briefing that South Korean fighter jets conducted bombing drills at a firing exercise ground after Pyongyang’s latest missile launch.
Separately, the South’s Yonhap news agency cited an unidentified Blue House source as saying the US military was considering the deployment of strategic assets to the Korean peninsula.
Meanwhile, in Japan, people are taking precaution. In Tokyo, more than 700 km south of the missile’s flight path, some train services were temporarily halted.
“Currently, a North Korean missile is flying above Japan,” said announcements at Tokyo stations handling bullet trains, minutes after the launch.
“It is very dangerous. Please take cover at the waiting areas or inside the trains.”
Yoshiaki Nakane, a retired government worker, said he feared Pyongyang’s provocative launch would aggravate already tense US-North Korea relations.
“North Korea repeatedly launches missiles and don’t seem to take any warnings seriously,” the 68-year-old said.
“I’m hoping that the US will not react too strongly to it and cause trouble. It would be Japan and South Korea that get damaged.”
At a US military base in Tokyo yesterday, Japan deployed a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile defense system as part of a previously scheduled drill.