Nuclear-armed North Korea mocked President Donald Trump as “bereft of reason” on Thursday, raising the stakes in their standoff with an unusually detailed plan to send a salvo of missiles towards the US territory of Guam.
The scheme to target the island, a key US military stronghold, was intended to “signal a crucial warning” as “only absolute force” would have an effect on the US leader, the North said.
The declaration came after Trump boasted on Twitter that America’s nuclear arsenal was “far stronger and more powerful than ever before”. Mr Trump’s “fire and fury” remarks were “a load of nonsense”, said General Kim Rak-Gyom, the commander of the North’s missile forces, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason,” he added in a statement. The military would complete the Guam plan by mid-August and submit it to Kim Jong-Un for consideration, he said.
The distinctively precise statement said 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 3,356.7 kilometres (around 2,086 miles) and come down 30 to 40 kilometres away from Guam, it said — which would put the impact points just outside US territorial waters.
Meanwhile, Japan says it could shoot down missiles for its US ally if North Korea fires them at Guam. Defence minister Itsunori Onodera said on Thursday’s parliamentary session that a missile attack on the US territory would breach the US deterrence against an attack on Japan. He said that would be a Japanese national emergency because it would threaten Japan’s existence as a nation.
Guam and its importance
There are two major bases on Guam:
Andersen Air Force Base in the north
Naval Base Guam in the south.
Roles of bases
Because Guam is a US territory, the US military may launch forces from there without worrying about upsetting a host nation that may object to US actions.
