North Korea Threatens To Hit Guam With Missile Strike
By RFE RL
(RFE/RL) — North Korea said on August 9 that it is “carefully examining” plans to launch a missile strike on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam hours after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Pyongyang that any threats would be met with “fire and fury.”
North Korea has said its goal is to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States and has shrugged off international sanctions aimed at forcing it to halt its nuclear and missile programs.
A strike by a medium-to-long range strategic ballistic missile could be launched toward Guam at any moment once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision, a spokesman for the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by the North’s state-run KCNA news agency.
The spokesman said the strike would aim to “contain the U.S. major military bases on Guam.” Guam is a critical outpost for the United States to launch military missions in the Asia-Pacific region.
North Korea also accused the United States of preparing a “preventive war” which it said would turn into an “all-out war wiping out all the strongholds of enemies, including the U.S. mainland.”
Trump earlier had warned any threat by Pyongyang would be met “with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
