Seoul/Guam - North Korea dismissed on
Thursday warnings by US President Donald Trump that it would
face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States as a
"load of nonsense", and outlined detailed plans for a missile
strike near the Pacific territory of Guam.
North Korea's apparently rapid progress in developing
nuclear weapons and missiles capable of reaching the U.S.
mainland has fuelled tensions that erupted into a war of words
between Washington and Pyongyang this week, unnerving regional
powers and global investors.
Trump's unexpected remarks prompted North Korea to say on
Thursday it was finalising plans to fire four intermediate-range
missiles over Japan to land 30-40km from Guam,
adding detail to a plan first announced on Wednesday.
Guam, more than 3,000km to the southeast of
North Korea, is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military
base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast
Guard group.
"Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of
reason and only absolute force can work on him," a report by the
North's state-run KCNA news agency said of Trump.
The army will complete its plans in mid-August, ready for
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's order, KCNA reported, citing
General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the
Korean People's Army.
While North Korea regularly threatens to destroy the United
States and its allies, the report was unusual in its detail.
Masao Okonogi, professor emeritus at Japan's Keio
University, said before the latest KCNA report that Pyongyang
may be issuing a warning or advance notice of changes to its
missile testing programme rather than threatening an attack.
"I believe this is a message saying they plan to move
missile tests from the Sea of Japan to areas around Guam," he
told Reuters. "By making this advance notice, they are also
sending a tacit message that what they are going to do is not a
actual attack."
Japan could legally intercept a North Korean missile headed
towards Guam if it posed an existential threat, Defence Minister
Itsunori Onodera said on Thursday in remarks reported by Kyodo
news service, a reiteration of Tokyo's position.
However, experts say Japan does not currently have the
capability to shoot down a missile flying over its territory
headed for Guam.
Experts also said the detail provided by North Korea made it
likely it would follow through with its plans to avoid being
seen as weak or lacking in resolve.
AVOIDING MISCALCULATION
Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said there was no heightened
threat from North Korea.
"They like to be unpredictable, they'll pop a missile off
when no one is ready and they've done it quite a few times. Now
they've telegraphed it," he told Reuters in an interview.
"They're now telegraphing their punch, which means they
don't want to have any misunderstandings. I think that's a
position of fear," he said.
With defences covering South Korea and Japan, naval assets
between Korea, Japan and Guam, and Guam's own missile defence
system, there was a "multi-level defensive umbrella" protecting
residents, Calvo said.
The United States and South Korea remain technically still
at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended
with a truce, not a peace treaty.
Tension in the region has risen since North Korea carried
out two nuclear bomb tests last year and two intercontinental
ballistic missile tests in July. Trump has said he will not
allow Pyongyang to develop a nuclear weapon capable of hitting
the United States.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a stark warning
on Wednesday, telling Pyongyang the United States and its allies
would win any arms race or conflict.
"The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that
would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its
people," Mattis said in a statement, using the acronym for North
Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea.
In a video of a rally in Pyongyang released by KCNA, Pak
Hyong Ryol, the manager of a Pyongyang cornstarch factory, said
North Koreans did not mind any kind of sanctions.
"They cannot stop our advance. This is the answer of our
heroic Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Il working class which has been
grown up under the warm care of the Party,” Pak said, referring
to North Korea's first two leaders.
HEADING TOWARDS CONFRONTATION
North Korea accuses Washington of devising a "preventive
war" and has said any plans to execute this would be met with an
"all-out war, wiping out all the strongholds of enemies,
including the U.S. mainland".
Washington has warned it is ready to use force if needed to
stop North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes but
that it prefers global diplomatic action. The U.N. Security
Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on
Saturday.
China, North Korea's main ally, has consistently urged both
sides to work to lower tensions.
Influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times said
the North Korean nuclear issue was heading towards confrontation
and it was time for the United States to respond to Pyongyang's
security concerns.
"North Korea has almost been completely isolated by the
outside world. Under such extreme circumstances, Pyongyang will
weigh all its possible options," it said in an editorial on its
website on Thursday. "Washington should stimulate Pyongyang's
desire to engage with the outside world and return to the
international community."