On Tuesday, after U.S. and Japanese intelligence reports that North Korea had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) led to President Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury” upon the rogue regime, North Korean President Kim Jong Un announced imminent plans to strike Guam.
“The KPA [Korean People’s Army] Strategic Force is now carefully examining the operational plan for making an enveloping fire at the areas around Guam with medium-to-long range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 in order to contain the U.S. major military bases on Guam,” a spokesman for North Korea’s army declared in a statement. If current reports are to be believed, that ICBM may be able to carry a nuclear warhead.
The statement said such an attack would specifically target “Anderson Air Force Base in which the U.S. strategic bombers, which get on the nerves of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and threaten and blackmail it through their frequent visits to the sky above south Korea, are stationed.”
Kim Jong Un might make the decision to strike at any time, the statement warned. “The plan is to be soon reported to the Supreme Command soon after going through full examination and completion and will be put into practice in a multi-concurrent and consecutive way any moment once Kim Jong Un … makes a decision” (emphasis added).
The KPA justified the threat by pointing to alleged U.S. aggression. The statement pointed to the Minuteman ICBM which was test-fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base last Wednesday. “It is driving the regional situation to an extreme pitch by bringing various kinds of nuclear strategic hardware before the very eyes of the DPRK,” the statement warned.
The KPA also noted that two U.S. B-1 bombers flew from Guam over the Korean Peninsula as part of its “continuous bomber presence.”
“In the morning of August 8 the air pirates of Guam again appeared in the sky above south Korea to stage a mad-cap drill simulating an actual war,” the statement read. “This grave situation requires the KPA to closely watch Guam, the outpost and beachhead for invading the DPRK, and necessarily take practical actions of significance to neutralize it.”
Chillingly, North Korea’s army warned that it would be a “daydream” for Americans to think that the U.S. “mainland is an invulnerable Heavenly kingdom.”
North Korea launched two ICBMs last month, revealing surprising technology that could target U.S. cities across the mainland. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley convinced even China and Russia to join in imposing hefty sanctions against North Korea on Saturday. She called the move a “gut punch” to the rogue regime.
On Tuesday, North Korea slammed the sanctions as “an outright challenge” to Kim’s power. It promised “thousands-fold” revenge against the U.S. in retaliation.
Also early on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported an Intelligence Community (IC) assessment that “North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles.”
Trump responded powerfully to the news. “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” the president declared. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal statement. And as I said, they will be met with fire, fury, and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
Expect things to get worse before they get better.
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