GUIDANCE

North Korea Gets Specific With Its Guam Threat

Aug 10, 2017 | 21:10 GMT

The city of Tamuning is on the island of Guam, a U.S. territory in the Western Pacific.

On Aug. 10, Guam's governor said the U.S. territory was well-equipped to handle any North Korean strike thanks to robust infrastructure that had survived earthquakes and typhoons.

(ROBERT TENORIO/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • Besides North Korea and the United States, the country to watch for developments in this developing situation is South Korea, which finds the prospect of war unacceptable. 
  • The threats made by North Korea are conditional, emphasizing that the United States should avoid any military provocation.
  • It still isn't clear that the Hwasong-12, the missile listed in the announcement, is reliable enough for such a demonstration.

North Korea has released specific details of its plan to strike the U.S. territory of Guam. According to comments attributed to Gen. Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army, the military is drawing up plans for a four-missile salvo of Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles to fly over Japan and land about 17 minutes later 30-40 kilometers (18-25 miles) from the island of Guam. The plan will be prepared and presented to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by mid-August, after which Pyongyang will "keep closely watching the speech and behavior of the U.S."...

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