Insights

North Korea threatens to strike Guam after Trump maintains threats will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen

Hours after US President Trump said they would meet any threat to the US with ‘fire and fury,’ North Korea commented that they were now ‘carefully examining’ a plan to attack the US Pacific territory of Guam with missiles. Guam is well within striking range of North Korea and hosts strategic US military installations, including both a naval and an air force base. Its population is around 160,000, with about 6,000 US troops currently stationed there.

A spokesman for the Korean People’s Army said the attack plan would be ‘put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment,’ once Kim Jong-un made a decision. North Korea has also threatened to carry out pre-emptive action at the first signs of US provocation. Trumps words that North Korea ‘will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen,’ mimic President Truman’s announcement of the US atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima, in which he warned, ‘A rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.’

It is advisable to be aware of escalating tensions with North Korea, who have made numerous threats in the past weeks. South Korea has said that they would quadruple the reward they will pay for North Korean defectors who will share information which will help enhance security. President Trump has vowed to meet any threat with ‘fire and fury.’