关岛政府官员安抚民众说,关岛很安全。此前,朝鲜声称,正在研究计划,对这个太平洋上具有战略意义的岛屿“进行覆盖性打击”。
朝中社亚洲时间星期三早上发表声明说,朝鲜武装部队正在“仔细研究”一项计划,对关岛实施导弹打击。据信,关岛美军基地上的核武器存量是美国大陆以外最多的。
朝中社援引朝鲜军方一位发言人的话说,一旦金正恩做出决定,随时可能以“多路径的连续方式”对关岛实施打击。
关岛总督卡尔沃在电视讲话中说,关岛不面临威胁,但他同时表示,关岛“为任何可能发生的情况做好了准备”。卡尔沃说,“关岛是美国属地,并不只是军事装置”,白宫已经向他保证,对关岛发动袭击就是对美国发动袭击。
关岛议员博尔达洛也说,朝鲜发出了“令人深感不安的”的威胁,但她相信美国部队有保护关岛的能力。不过,她同时敦促川普总统跟国际社会合作,缓解紧张局势。
一天前,华盛顿和平壤在言辞上激烈交锋。美国总统川普星期二对朝鲜发出严厉警告。川普说,如果平壤继续威胁美国,“他们将承受的是前所未见的烈焰与怒火”。
川普告诉记者说,自从美国加大对朝鲜的制裁,并赢得联合国安理会一致通过,对朝鲜实施惩罚以来,朝鲜领导人金正恩采取了“极具威胁”的姿态。
正在新泽西州工作休假的川普在他的一个高尔夫球俱乐部再次警告说,金正恩让朝鲜冒着“烈焰与怒火”的危险,坦率的说,打击力量将是这个世界前所未见的。”
美国媒体星期二早些时候报道说,美国国防情报局得出结论,朝鲜最近成功生产了微型核弹头,可以配置在最近试射的洲际弹道导弹上。
川普星期二的强势辞令和平壤的高调回应都让外界担心,朝鲜半岛可能再次陷入战争。
Elected officials in Guam are reassuring constituents that the U.S. territory is safe following North Korea’s claim that it is examining its plan for “making an enveloping fire” around the strategically important Pacific island.
In the statement issued early Wednesday in Asia, the North’s Korean Central News Agency said its armed forces were “carefully examining” a plan for missile strikes on Guam. American military bases on the U.S. Pacific island territory are believed to hold the largest U.S. arsenal of nuclear weapons outside the continental United States.
A spokesman for North Korea’s army was quoted as saying the strike plan will be “put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment,” once an order is given by Kim Jong Un.
Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said there was no threat to the island, but also said it was “prepared for any eventuality” in a televised speech. Governor Calvo said “Guam is American soil…not just a military installation,” and was assured by the White House that an attack on Guam would be considered an attack on the United States.
Madeleine Bordallo, Guam’s elected congressional delegate, also expressed confidence in the ability of U.S. forces to protect the island amid North Korea’s “deeply troubling” threat, but urged Trump to work with the international community to de-escalate tensions.
The moves followed a day of heated rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a stark warning to North Korea, saying if Pyongyang continues its threats against the United States, “they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Trump told reporters Kim Jong Un has been acting in a “very threatening” manner since the United States increased its sanctions against the reclusive communist state and won a unanimous vote by the U.N. Security Council to impose penalties on Pyongyang.
Speaking at his golf club in New Jersey, where he has been on a working vacation, Trump repeated his warning that Kim Jong Un risked bringing down on his impoverished country “fire, fury and frankly, power the likes of which the world has never seen before.”
Earlier Tuesday U.S. media outlets reported the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded that North Korea recently succeeded in building a miniaturized nuclear warhead, small enough to fit in the intercontinental ballistic missiles Pyongyang recently has test-fired.
Trump’s forceful language on Tuesday, and Pyongyang’s vociferous response, revived concerns about renewed war on the Korean peninsula, where three years of combat in the early 1950s ended in stalemate.