Strike would land four missiles around Guam
Path would take warheads over Japan mainland
BEDMINSTER, N.J. •North Korea announced a detailed plan Thursday to launch a salvo of ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers.
The threatened attack, if carried out, would be the North’s most provocative missile launch to date. The North said it is finalizing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into waters around the tiny island, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel at two main bases and has a population of 160,000.
North Korea said the plan, which involves the missiles hitting waters 30 to 40 kilometres from the island, could be sent to leader Kim Jong Un for approval within a week or so. It would be up to Kim whether the move is actually carried out. But the extreme specificity of the plan suggested it was designed to show North Korea is actually plotting a launch.
The report said the Hwasong-12s would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures in Japan and travel “1,065 seconds before hitting the waters 30 to 40 km away from Guam.” It said the Korean People’s Army Strategic Force will finalize the plan by mid-August, present it to Kim and “wait for his order.”
It is unclear whether — or exactly why — North Korea would risk firing missiles so close to U.S. territory. Such a launch would almost compel the U.S. to attempt an intercept and possibly generate further escalation.
By launching a salvo of four, the North would be attempting to make it harder to intercept all of the incoming missiles. Its stated flight path over Japan is also very aggressive — it has recently tried to avoid flying over neighbouring countries by shooting missiles up at a very high angle to land in the sea.