N. KOREA DETAILS GUAM STRIKE PLAN, MOCKS TRUMP
Pyongyang says it will launch 4 missiles, which will overfly Japan
SEOUL forces, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason.”
The military would complete the Guam plan by mid-August and submit it to Kim for consideration, he said.
The statement said the four missiles would be launched simultaneously and overfly the Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi.
They would have a flight time of 17 minutes 45 seconds, travel 3,356.7km and come down 30 to 40 kilometres away from Guam, it said, which would put the impact points just outside US territorial waters.
The western Pacific island of Guam is home to US strategic assets, including long-range bombers and military jets and submarines, which are regularly deployed for shows of force in and near the Korean peninsula, to Pyongyang’s fury.
Professor Yang Moo-jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies said the level of detail in Pyongyang’s declaration was unusual.
“The North appears to be saying what it is going to do is within international laws.
“Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the North may translate this plan into reality.”
Adam Mount, senior fellow of the Centre for American Progress, tweeted: “Unlike Trump’s vague, incendiary threat, DPRK’s is coercive, clear, specific, and has credible escalation potential. Response is difficult.”
Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said yesterday it could legally intercept a North Korean missile headed towards Guam.
He said Japan would be allowed to hit a missile headed towards Guam if it was judged to be an existential threat to Japan.
Thousands of North Koreans marched through central Pyongyang on Wednesday, waving clenched fists, as authorities put on a show of support for their stance. Agencies