U.S. ups Korean presence
Missile defence system installed as tension increases
WASHINGTON — Ahead of an extraordinary White House briefing for senators, close ally South Korea on Wednesday started installing key parts of a contentious U.S. defence system against missiles from North Korea. And America’s Pacific commander said any North Korean missile fired at U.S. forces would be destroyed.
“If it flies, it will die,” Adm. Harry Harris Jr., told Congress.
South Korea’s trumpeting of progress in setting up the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence system, or THAAD, comes as high-powered U.S. vessels converge on the Korean Peninsula and as a combative North Korea signals possible nuclear and missile testing. Harris said the THAAD would be operational within days.
North Korea conducted live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, the 85th anniversary of the founding of its million-person Korean People’s Army. On the same day, a U.S. guided-missile submarine docked in South Korea. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft supercarrier also is headed toward the peninsula for an exercise with South Korea. China, which is urging restraint on all sides, called for the U.S. to halt the manoeuvres.
At a House Armed Services Committee meeting, Harris said he expects North Korea to soon be able to develop a long-range missile capable of striking the United States, despite some spectacular failures in its ballistic missile program.
“Just as Thomas Edison is believed to have failed 1,000 times before successfully inventing the electric light bulb, so too, Kim Jong Un will keep trying,” Harris said. “One of these days soon, he will succeed.”