North Korea considers missile strike on Guam after Trump’s ‘fire and fury’ warning
SEOUL/BEDMINSTER, NJ (Reuters) – North Korea said on Wednesday it is considering plans for a missile strike on the US Pacific territory of Guam, just hours after President Donald Trump told the North that any threat to the United States would be met with “fire and fury.”
The sharp increase in tensions rattled financial markets and prompted warnings from US officials and analysts not to engage in rhetorical slanging matches with North Korea.
Pyongyang said it was “carefully examining” a plan to strike Guam, home to a US military base that includes a submarine squadron, an airbase and a Coast Guard group.
A Korean People’s Army spokesman said in a statement carried by state-run KCNA news agency the plan would be put into practice at any moment once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision.
North Korea also accused the United States of devising a “preventive war” and said in another statement, citing a different military spokesman, any plans to execute this would be met with an “allout war wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the US mainland.”
Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to stop North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs but that it prefers global diplomatic action, including sanctions. The UN Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Saturday.
Trump issued his strongest warning yet for North Korea in comments to reporters in New Jersey on Tuesday.
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said.
North Korea has made no secret of its plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile able to strike the United States and has ignored international calls to halt its nuclear and missile programs.
Pyongyang says its intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are a legitimate means of defense against perceived US hostility. It has long accused the United States and South Korea of escalating tensions by conducting military drills.
The United States has remained technically at war with North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
Seoul is home to roughly 10 million people, within range of massed North Korean rockets and artillery, which would be impossible to destroy in a first US strike.
Tens of thousands of US troops remain stationed in South Korea and in nearby Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons. Wednesday marked the 72nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki by the United States.
Tensions in the region have risen since North Korea carried out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two ICBM tests in July.
Japanese fighters conducted joint air drills with US supersonic bombers in Japanese skies close to the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force said.
On Monday, two US B-1 bombers flew from Guam over the Korean Peninsula as part of its “continuous bomber presence”, a US official said, in a sign of Guam’s strategic importance.
The island, popular with Japanese and South Korean tourists, is protected by the advanced US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system recently installed in South Korea, the deployment of which has angered China.