U.S. Weapons Mass in S.Korea

U.S. B-1B strategic bombers were sent again to skies over the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday night, practicing launching a precision strike against the North alongside the South Korean Air Force's F-15K fighter jets.

Tuesday was the North Korean Workers Party's founding anniversary, when another widely feared missile launch failed to materialize.

Earlier U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed by top defense officials on a "range of options" about how to deal with North Korea's nuclear threat, the White House said.

Trump "met with members of his national security team to receive a briefing from Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford," the White House said in a statement on Tuesday. "The briefing and discussion focused on a range of options to respond to any form of North Korean aggression or, if necessary, to prevent North Korea from threatening the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons."

The White House did not specify what the options were.

The B-1B bombers took off from their base on Guam and entered the South Korean airspace at around 9 p.m. Tuesday and practiced launching hypothetical air-to-surface missiles over the East Sea, the Joint Chiefs of Staff here said.

Meanwhile, the nuclear attack submarine USS Tucson arrived in Jinhae, South Gyeongsang Province last week armed with 12 Tomahawk cruise missile launch tubes and four torpedo launch tubes.

The USS Ronald Reagan nuclear-powered aircraft carrier strike group left Hong Kong on Oct. 6 and is sailing towards the Korean waters.

"The Reagan aircraft carrier strike group will participate in a joint exercise next week," a Navy spokesman here said.