Guam Officials Urge Calm After North Korea Threatens Attack
The North Korea Army said Wednesday it’s studying a plan to create an “enveloping fire” around Guam with medium- to long-range missiles.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Security and defense officials on Guam say 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.
Guam’s Department of Homeland Security and Office of Civil Defense say they are monitoring North Korea with U.S. military and government officials.
Guam’s Homeland Security Adviser George Charfauros says officials there are confident “the U.S. Department of Defense is monitoring this situation very closely and is maintaining a condition of readiness.”
Charfauros in his statement Wednesday morning urged calm and said defenses are in place on Guam and its neighboring Pacific islands for threats such as North Korea.
The speaker of the Guam Legislature says he hopes the island can defend itself in the event of an attack from North Korea.
Benjamin J. Cruz tells The Associated Press in a telephone interview, “We’re just praying that the United States and the … defense system we have here is sufficient enough to protect us.”
North Korea says it is examining its operational plans for attacking Guam to contain U.S. bases there.
Cruz calls the threat “very disconcerting,” saying, “It forces us to pause and to say a prayer for the safety of our people.”
Rena Chang, who owns a hair salon in the tourist area of Tumon, says: “That’s so scary. My heart is pumping right now.”
North Korea says it is examining its operational plans for attacking Guam to contain U.S. bases there.
The army said in a statement distributed Wednesday by the state-run news agency that it is studying a plan to create an “enveloping fire” in areas around Guam with medium- to long-range ballistic missiles. The U.S. territory is home to Andersen Air Force Base.
The statement says the move is in response to a recent U.S. ICBM test.
It comes as President Donald Trump says North Korea “will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it makes any more threats to the U.S.
A Japanese defense paper and a U.S. media report Tuesday said North Korea may have successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.
