N Korea considers missiles threat to US base
NORTH KOREA’S military has presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and “wring the windpipes of the Yankees”.
The move came despite both Koreas and the United States signalling their willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path towards negotiations.
The tentative interest in diplomacy follows unusually combative threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea amid worries Pyongyang is nearing its long-sought goal of being able to send a nuclear missile to the US mainland.
Next week’s start of US-South Korean military exercises that enrage the North each year could make diplomacy even more difficult.
During an inspection of the North Korean army’s strategic forces, which handles the missile programme, Mr Kim praised the military for drawing up a “close and careful plan”.
He also said he would watch the “foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees” a little more before deciding whether to order the missile test, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
Mr Kim appeared in photos sitting at a table with a large map marked by a straight line between what appeared to be northeastern North Korea and Guam, and passing over Japan – apparently showing the missiles’ flight route.
Mr Kim said North Korea would conduct the launches if the “Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity”, warning the United States to “think reasonably and judge properly” to avoid shaming itself, the news agency said.
The Trump administration had no immediate comments on Mr Kim’s declaration.
“We continue to be interested in trying to find a way to get to dialogue, but that’s up to him,” US secretary of state Rex Tillerson told reporters in Washington.
Lobbing missiles toward Guam, a major US military hub in the Pacific, would be deeply provocative from the US perspective.
A miscalculation on either side could lead to military confrontation. On Monday, US defence secretary James Mattis said Washington warned that a North Korean attack could mean war.
Mr Kim’s may be hoping he can pressure the US into scaling down US-South Korean military drills set to begin on August 21 or srop flying B-1B over the Korean Peninsula as a show of force.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, a liberal who favours diplomacy, urged North Korea to stop provocations and to commit to talks over its nuclear weapons programme.
Mr Moon, in a televised speech, urged the North to spur talks by stopping nuclear and missile tests.
The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford, said US wants to peacefully resolve tensions with North Korea, but Washington is also ready to use the “full range” of its military capabilities, Gen Dunford said.