Worries grow as tensions rise between US, North Korea
RESIDENTS OF the tiny Pacific island of Guam say they’re afraid of being caught in the middle of escalating tensions between the US and North Korea after Pyongyang announced it was examining plans for attacking the strategically important US territory.
Though local officials downplayed any threat and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was unruffled as he headed to Guam to refuel on his trip back to Washington from Malaysia, people who live and work on the island said they could no longer shrug off the idea of being a potential target. Guam serves as a launching pad for the US military.
“I’m a little worried, a little panicked. Is this really going to happen?” said Cecil Chugrad, a 37-year-old bus driver for a tour bus company in Guam. “If it’s just me, I don’t mind, but I have to worry about my son. I feel like moving (out of Guam) now.”
About 163,000 people live on the island that spans only about 12 miles (19 kilometres) at its widest. They are used to the threats from North Korea. But advances in the country’s nuclear programme, paired with fiery rhetoric from President Donald Trump, have raised the already high animosity and heightened worries that a miscalculation might spark conflict between the nuclear-armed nations.
Reports suggested North Korea mastered a technological hurdle needed to strike the US with a nuclear missile. The advances were detailed in an official Japanese assessment and later a Washington Post story that cited US intelligence officials and a confidential Defence Intelligence Agency report.
In response, Trump on Tuesday threatened the communist country “with fire and fury.” On Wednesday, the North Korean army said in a statement that it was studying a plan to create an “enveloping fire” in areas around Guam with medium- to long-range ballistic missiles. In this May 15, 2017, file photo, tourists walk through a shopping district in Tamuning, Guam. Security and defence officials on Guam said on Wednesday, that there is no imminent threat to people there or in the Northern Mariana Islands after North Korea said it was examining its operational plans for attack.