If N Korea launch 4 intermediate range missiles around Guam, it will have the following consequences :-
(1) It will draw in 3 Countries of adversaries - S Korea, Japan and US.
S Korea Thaad system will be its 1st line of defense - as its radar will 1st detect, and has the 1st line of defense to shoot it down.
Japan with its Aegis naval system will form the 2nd line of defense the moment the missiles enter into its territorial water.
Its Patriot missile defence system in its land will form the 3rd line of defense.
And finally if the missiles are able to bypass the 3 line of defense, the Thaad in Guam will form the last line of defense to shoot the offending missiles down.
(2) S Korea, Japan and US can choose not to shoot the missiles down - this will mean N Korea will have won the psychological war and will be embolden to perform similar feats again and again - just like what it did in Sea of Japan.It also means US and its Allies defense system is not tested if N Korea does launch a nuclear strike.
(3) Shooting down N Korea missiles is a measure of how reliable US and its Allies defense system in countering and defending against N Korea missiles, albeit nuclear missiles if armed with nuclear warhead.
If all the offending missiles are shot down, it will send a signal to the N Korea that its missile strike is not effective and may in fact discouraged N Korea for launching nuclear strike or may have the reverse effect of N Korea doing more tests.
(4) However, if the concentric layer of defense fail to shoot down all or let one or 2 go past, then N Korea will be embolden to challenge US and its Allies openly or even launch sneak attack.
(5) Or the worst scenario is that US lose all patience with N Korea Guam strike - where US launch and all out striek on N Korea.
Thus if N Korea decide to strike Guam or around Guam, adverse consequences beyond imagination may follow.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan could legally intercept a North Korean missile headed towards Guam, Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Thursday in remarks reported by Kyodo news service.
Onodera told a lower house of parliament committee that Japan would be allowed to hit a missile headed towards the U.S. Pacific territory if it was judged to be an existential threat to Japan, Kyodo said. This is a reiteration of the Japanese government's position.
Experts say Japan does not currently have the capability to shoot down a missile flying over its territory headed for Guam.
(Reporting by William Mallard; Editing by Paul Tait)
Guam's Governor Wants President Who Promises 'Fire, Fury'
The governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo, told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday that he’s used to threats against the territory and supports President Donald Trump’s warning that North Korea will be met with “fire and fury.”
“I want a president that says that,” Calvo said to Kilmeade, who was filling in on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
On Tuesday,Trump threatened North Korea after reports surfaced that the country was escalating its nuclear program, telling reporters: “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
Calvo has responded calmly to the threat of a potential nuclear war. When Kilmeade asked him whether Trump’s remarks get “to the heart of the problem” or solve “the problem in the big picture,” he said: “As far as I’m concerned, as an American citizen, I want a president that says that if any nation such as North Korea attacks Guam, attacks Honolulu, attacks the West Coast, that they will be met with hell and fury.”
Calvo also said that while he is concerned and worried about North Korea, “there is no panic.”
“If you can recall, just going back to 2013, this is about the third or fourth threat made specifically to Guam.”
“We encourage everyone to go through their lives and live them like they would any other day,” he added.
The biggest concern Calvo seemed to have, which he referenced while appearing on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” was South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham’s statement that Trump was ready togo to war with North Korea and that it wouldn’t impact Americans.
“If there’s going to be a war to stop [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un], it will be over there,” Graham said last week. “If thousands die, they’re going to die over there. They’re not going to die here, and [Trump’s] told me that to my face.”
Calvo noted that Guam is home to many American citizens, and there’s also the rest of the Mariana archipelago to consider ― where over 200,000 American citizens live.
He said it was important “that those folks that are in a position of leadership ... understand, too, that war is the last option, because not only will tens of thousands of American military forces and dependents be affected by a regional war, but because the Western Pacific has American soil in it, then a couple hundred thousand Americans could get caught in the crosshairs.”
“I think it’s important to be very strong, at the same time be calm,” he told Kilmeade. “I’ve had enough briefings with the military, that there is a multilayered defense starting from Korea, Japan, as well as in the Western Pacific ― as well as our terrestrial assets here in Guam, with the THAAD missile defense system ― that American communities such as Guam, as well as other American communities, will be protected.”
Speaking alongside Vice President Mike Pence at his New Jersey country club, Trump also said China could do "a lot more" to pressure Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons programme.
US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence speak to the press at Trump's Bedminster National Golf Club in New Jersey. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP)
(Updated:)
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Thursday (Aug 10) warned North Korea it should be "very, very nervous" of the consequences if it even thinks of attacking US soil, after nuclear-armed Pyongyang said it was readying missile launch plans on the Pacific territory of Guam.
The Republican billionaire dismissed any criticism of his "fire and fury" warning, saying it possibly "wasn't tough enough," given threats made by the regime of Kim Jong-Un to both Washington and its allies.
Trump also said China, Pyongyang's main diplomatic ally, could "do a lot more" to pressure Kim to end his country's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.
Trump's comments, made from his golf club retreat in New Jersey, came after the North announced a detailed plan to send four missiles over Japan and towards Guam, where some 6,000 US soldiers are based.
Pyongyang said the scheme to target the island, a key US military outpost in the western Pacific, was intended to "signal a crucial warning" as "only absolute force" would have an effect on a US leader "bereft of reason."
Trump fired back with gusto.
"If North Korea does anything in terms of even thinking about an attack on anybody we love or we represent or our allies or us, they can be very, very nervous," he told reporters, with Vice President Mike Pence at his side.
"And they should be ... because things will happen to them like they never thought possible."
'BETTER GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER'
Relations between Washington and Pyongyang have been tense for months, in the wake of the North's repeated missile tests, including two successful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test launches in July.
Those launches put the US mainland in range. Some experts believe the second missile could potentially reach New York.
The escalating saber-rattling took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when Trump seemed to borrow from the North's arsenal of rhetoric, saying it faced "fire and fury like the world has never seen" if it continued to threaten the US.
That prompted a defiant Pyongyang to threaten a missile attack on Guam.
The war of words has set off diplomatic alarm bells, and raised fears of a miscalculation that could lead to catastrophic consequences on the Korean peninsula and beyond.
The region is facing "a mini Cuban missile crisis," John Delury, a professor at Seoul's Yonsei University, told AFP.
Trump dismissed the notion that his administration was delivering mixed messages and said Washington remained open to negotiations.
But he once again suggested that he expected China to "do a lot more" to bring North Korea into line.
"I will tell you this, North Korea better get their act together or they're going to be in trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble in this world, okay?" he added.
The United Nations imposed a seventh set of sanctions on Pyongyang at the weekend that could cost North Korea US$1 billion a year, with even China voting for the US-drafted proposal.
The European Union announced on Thursday that it was expanding its North Korean sanctions blacklist.
UNUSUAL DETAIL
In North Korea, General Kim Rak-Gyom, the commander of the North's missile forces, dismissed Trump's "fire and fury" remarks as "a load of nonsense," according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency.
"Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason," he added.
The military was expected to finalise its Guam plan by mid-August and submit it to Kim for consideration, he said.
The unusually precise statement said the four missiles would be launched simultaneously and overfly the Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Kochi.
They would have a flight time of 17 minutes 45 seconds, travel 3,356.7 kilometres and come down 30 to 40 kilometres away from Guam, it said - just outside US territorial waters.
Japan, which has in the past warned it would shoot down any North Korean missiles that threaten its territory, responded that it could "never tolerate" provocations from the reclusive state.
Professor Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul's University of North Korean Studies said the level of detail in Pyongyang's statement was unusual.
"The North appears to be saying what it is going to do is within international laws," he told AFP. "Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the North may translate this plan into reality."
'NOT A DARE'
Analysts said a North Korean launch towards Guam would put the US in a dilemma: if it did not try to intercept the missiles, its credibility would be damaged and the North would feel emboldened to carry out a full-range ICBM test.
But if an intercept were attempted and failed in any way, it would undermine the effectiveness of the United States' ballistic missile defence system.
Trump said Kim had "disrespected our country greatly" and vowed that he would not tolerate threats against the US, Japan and South Korea. "That's not a dare," he said. "That is a statement of fact."
Tensions on the Korean peninsula tend to increase when Seoul and Washington launch major military joint exercises, and the next, Ulchi Freedom Guardian, is set to kick off around Aug 21.
"Pyongyang's interpretation of rhetoric from Washington is different from the way the West regards the North's habitual threats," said Hong Hyun-Ik, a senior researcher with the Sejong Institute. "It views such fiery rhetoric from Trump as a matter of life and death."
Source: AFP/de Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/trump-to-north-korea-be-very-very-nervous-9113328
Trump ramps up Guam assurances over North Korea threat
Sailors man their mooring lines aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) as the ship departs Naval Base Guam after a scheduled port visit. (Photo: AFP/Byron C. LINDER)
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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday (Aug 12) reassured Guam it was secure amid mounting regional tensions, vowing that American military forces "stand ready" to safeguard the US Pacific island territory against a belligerent North Korea.
The North has threatened to fire ballistic missiles over Japan toward the tourism-dependent idyllic island, as Pyongyang and Washington ratchet up their war of words.
With Guam's safety in the balance, Trump assured the territory's Governor Eddie Calvo: "We are with you 1000 per cent, you are safe."
A member of Trump's Republican Party, Calvo insisted during the two men's call that "I have never felt more safe or so confident with you at the helm," according to his office.
"We're going to do a great job, don't worry about a thing," Trump then added. "They should have had me eight years ago, or somebody with my thought process."
Trump has warned the North that it would "truly regret" attacking the US, and that the US military is "locked and loaded." Earlier this week, he threatened "fire and fury."
The North's official KCNA news service, for its part, accused Trump in an editorial of "driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war," calling the US "the heinous nuclear war fanatic."
Key Pyongyang ally Beijing, meanwhile, has pleaded with Trump to tone down his rhetoric to prevent tensions from boiling over.
Updated map detailing a North Korean plan to fire missiles into waters off Guam, with factfile on Guam, plus details on anti-missile defences. (Photo: AFP/John SAEKI)
TYPHOONS SCARIER THAN KIM JONG UN
Tourism officials are jumping on the unusually high attention to the territory as an opportunity to attract more visitors to the island of 162,000 people that draws more than 1.5 million tourists a year.
"The circumstances are unfortunate but this is a good opportunity for us to educate the world about Guam and our culture, about where we are, and who we are," Guam Visitors Bureau marketing director Josh Tyquiengco told AFP.
"Guam is more than a military base. We are a safe family destination. We reassure potential visitors that we continue to be a safe... place to visit."
He said there had only been a few booking cancellations from South Korea.
And island dwellers say they fear a powerful typhoon more than the wrath of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
"Kim Jong Un is as crazy as typhoons but I am more scared of typhoons because they are real threats," said Rolando Zepeda, 57, a teacher at Saint Anthony's School.
Calvo, who noted that this is not the first time North Korea has threatened the island, bluntly told Guam residents to simply conduct their daily business "as usual."
Guam hosts two US military installations and 6,000 US soldiers - making it an attractive target for the North.
"United States forces stand ready to ensure the safety and security of the people of Guam, along with the rest of America," the White House said in a summary of Trump's call with Calvo.
In an earlier call, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Calvo: "We are all over this... The wonderful island of Guam is very well protected."
Pyongyang has said it would take less than 18 minutes for a missile to cross the 3,400-kilometre distance to the US territory.
In addition to the US military bases, Guam is also equipped with the sophisticated THAAD weapons system which is capable of destroying intermediate-range missiles in the final phase of flight.
Officials, however, have sought to brush off fears and say there has been no change in the threat level for now.
Source: AFP Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/trump-ramps-up-guam-assurances-over-north-korea-threat-9117686
