Key Questions on North Korea’s Plan to Fire Missiles Near Guam
North Korea said last week that it was fine-tuning plans to launch four intermediate-range ballistic missiles into waters 30 to 40 kilometers, or 19 to 25 miles, off Guam in what it said would be an "enveloping fire." The military said at the time
that it was waiting for a final order from Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea.
North Korea threatened last week to fire missiles at Guam after President Trump warned
that the United States would unleash "fire and fury" if the isolated authoritarian state endangered it.
On Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of deploying "huge nuclear strategic equipment around the peninsula" and warned
that it should "stop at once its arrogant provocation." But South Korea and the United States are planning to conduct biannual military exercises next week over the North’s objections.
15, 2017
HONG KONG — North Korea has said it may fire missiles into waters near Guam, an American territory in
the Western Pacific, escalating the standoff with the United States over the North’s nuclear program.
The North also condemned the test of an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile this month
that the United States launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 1,500 miles east of Guam.
But pressed on what the United States would do if a missile hit the waters near Guam but not the island itself, Mr. Mattis replied, "Well, then it becomes an issue
that we take up however the president chooses." "You can’t make all those kinds of decisions in advance," he continued.
