{"id":68148,"date":"2017-08-09T19:54:57","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T19:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/09\/could-north-korea-attack-guam\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:49:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:49:47","slug":"could-north-korea-attack-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2017\/08\/09\/could-north-korea-attack-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"Targeting Guam: Will Kim Jong Un do it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

North Korea\u2019s latest threat to attack Guam was no doubt alarming for the roughly 16,400 U.S. troops and family members stationed on the west Pacific island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But several Korean analysts said the harsh words are probably not indicative of a coming war but were instead just the latest salvo in the Kim Jong Un regime\u2019s attempt to show strength and get the rest of the world to back off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea has issued such threats before, said Dr. Terence Roehrig, a national security professor at the Naval War College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not surprising they\u2019re going to be vocal about plans like that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do deterrence like that too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pyongyang has several missiles, including the non-nuclear Musudans, that could reach Guam, just more than 2,000 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the United States has the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system deployed to Guam, while AEGIS-equipped destroyers are nearby in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also remains to be seen just how capable North Korea\u2019s longer-range missiles are, Roehrig said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRange is one issue, but accuracy is another,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not entirely certain to me that their accuracy is as good as you might think, or the North Koreans hope.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The North Korean regime knows an attack on Guam would prompt a U.S. military response that would end Kim Jong Un\u2019s regime, said Dr. Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security program at the Center for a New American Security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, academic talk about a new Cold War-style chess match between the two nations serves as little comfort to those that are in possible crosshairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Trump dived headfirst into the war of words Wednesday when he said he would rain down \u201cfire and fury like the world has never seen<\/a>\u201d on North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNorth Korea had best not make any more threats to the United States,\u201d Trump said from his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. <\/p>\n\n\n