As N. Korea Blocks Workers, U.S. Plans More Pacific Defense
WASHINGTON — The United States announced Wednesday that it was deploying an advanced missile defense system to Guam, to protect one of the main American naval and air bases in the Pacific against North Korean attack. Only hours before, North Korea blocked South Koreans from crossing the border to enter a jointly operated industrial park that employs more than 50,000 North Koreans, raising doubts about the future of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.
Pentagon officials say that the decision to rush a system called THAAD — for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense — to Guam in coming weeks was “a precautionary move to strengthen our regional defense posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat." But its primary importance is that, once installed, the land-based system will free up two Aegis-class missile-defense warships to be repositioned far closer to the North Korean coast, to give President Obama more options to decide whether to attempt to shoot down the North’s increasingly-sophisticated arsenal of missiles, perhaps during a North Korean missile test.
“We haven’t made any decisions,” a senior administration official said. “But we want as many options as possible.”
The North, angry over joint American-South Korean military drills and a recent round of United Nations sanctions, has in recent weeks threatened to strike at the United States, the South’s ally, in Guam, Hawaii and the mainland United States. While analysts doubt the potency of the North’s arsenal, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded Wednesday that the North’s recent inflammatory language and actions presented “a real and clear danger” to the interests of South Korea, Japan and the United States.
