Japan Deploys Missile Defense Over NKorea Threat to Guam

Guam has posted emergency guidelines to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack as North Korea threatens to fire missiles at the US Pacific territory.

The North Korea People’s Army responded by announcing a detailed plan under consideration to launch an intermediate range missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean near the USA territory of Guam, where a major American military base is located. Meanwhile, Kim has said he might strike the usa territory of Guam from which strategic bombers have conducted missions on the peninsula.

“The KPA Strategic Force will finally complete the plan until mid-August and report it to the commander-in-chief (Kim Jong-un) and wait for his order”, the General added.

The exchange of threats has alarmed the tiny island, which is home to about 160,000 people, about 40 percent of whom are Filipinos, according to Norman Analista, president of the Filipino Community of Guam. During the missiles’ flight, should the United States try to intercept them, knowing they will not come anywhere near Guam?

On Friday, Mr. Trump offered reassurance to residents of Guam, saying “I feel that they will be very safe” despite North Korea’s threats. The Aug. 7 mission demonstrated the US commitment to regional allies, increased readiness and exercised the right under worldwide law “to fly legally in the place and time of our choosing”, officials said.

“I don’t think North Korea has a good measure of how accurate the missile is at this point”, said Michael Elleman, an expert with the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Officials called them successes, but critics say they don’t replicate actual conditions close enough to be a fair gauge.

“It would be very hard to eliminate that threat before the artillery fire could create a lot of damage on the southern side”, said David Shear, who served as the senior USA defence official for east Asia under former President Barack Obama.

Keeping up his tough talk from his New Jersey golf resort where he is on a working vacation, Trump warned Kim Jong Un’s government to “get their act together” or face extraordinary trouble, and suggested his earlier threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea was too mild.

Resident Isaac Camacho, 19, says he feels Guam’s relationship with the US mainland is “a little misunderstood on their part”. His recent Pyongyang-style threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea has been met with silence from the top levels of South Korea’s government – and worry, sometimes anger, from the country’s citizens. “It’s like asking both the U.S. and Japan, ‘What are you going to do?'” “Enjoy the beaches”, he said.

On Friday, President Donald Trump urged North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un not to take any action against the United States, its territories including Guam or its allies, warning he would regret such a move – and “regret it fast”.

But North Korea mentioned a specific missile, the Hwasong-12, that it has tested just once, and an expert contacted by Business Insider says hitting the United States military in Guam would be easier said than done. According to the Korean Central News Agency, the latest launch on July 28 was successful, and the missile reached the altitude of 3,725 kilometers and traveled 998 kilometers, for about 47 minutes, before falling into the Sea of Japan. He added, however, that his aim was still to move North Korea toward dialogue.

“So unless those North Korean missiles were to fall short, the Patriots shouldn’t have a function to serve in this particular case”, he said. In addition, Beijing – the guarantor of the North Korean regime’s survival, whether Pyongyang likes it or not – and Washington need to agree on the end-state of such a military action.