{"id":24490,"date":"2017-08-15T15:09:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T15:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/15\/north-korea-seems-to-step-back-just-a-little-from-guam-threats\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:20:08","slug":"north-korea-seems-to-step-back-just-a-little-from-guam-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2017\/08\/15\/north-korea-seems-to-step-back-just-a-little-from-guam-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea seems to step back \u2014 just a little \u2014 from Guam threats"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEOUL, South Korea \u2014 North Korea\u2019s military on Tuesday presented leader Kim Jong Un with plans to launch missiles into waters near Guam and \u201cwring the windpipes of the Yankees,\u201d even as both Koreas and the United States signaled their willingness to avert a deepening crisis, with each suggesting a path toward negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tentative interest in diplomacy follows unusually combative threats between President Donald Trump and North Korea amid worries that Pyongyang is nearing its long-sought goal of accurately being able to send a nuclear missile to the U.S. mainland. Next week\u2019s start of U.S.-South Korean military exercises that enrage the North each year makes it unclear, however, if diplomacy will prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During an inspection of the North Korean army\u2019s Strategic Forces, which handles the missile program, Kim praised the military for drawing up a \u201cclose and careful plan\u201d and said he would watch the \u201cfoolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees\u201d a little more before deciding whether to order the missile test, the North\u2019s state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Kim appeared in photos sitting at a table with a large map marked by a straight line between what appeared to be northeastern North Korea and Guam, and passing over Japan \u2014 apparently showing the missiles\u2019 flight route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The missile plans were previously announced. Kim said North Korea would conduct the launches if the \u201cYankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity,\u201d and that the United States should \u201cthink reasonably and judge properly\u201d to avoid shaming itself, the news agency said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobbing missiles toward Guam, a major U.S. military hub in the Pacific, would be a deeply provocative act from the U.S. perspective, and a miscalculation on either side could lead to a military clash. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said the United States would take out any such missile seen to be heading for American soil and declared any such North Korean attack could mean war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim\u2019s comments, however, with their conditional tone, seemed to hold out the possibility that friction could ease if the United States made some sort of gesture that Pyongyang considered a move to back away from previous \u201cextremely dangerous reckless actions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That could refer to the U.S.-South Korean military drills set to begin Monday, which the North claims are rehearsals for invasion. It also could refer to the B-1B bombers that the U.S. has occasionally flown over the Korean Peninsula as a show of force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, meanwhile, a liberal who favors engagement with the North, urged North Korea to stop provocations and to commit to talks over its nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon, in a televised speech Tuesday on the anniversary of the end of World War II and the Korean Peninsula\u2019s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, said that Seoul and Washington agree that the crisis over the North\u2019s nuclear program should \u201cabsolutely be solved peacefully,\u201d and that no U.S. military action on the Korean Peninsula could be taken without Seoul\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon said the North could create conditions for talks by stopping nuclear and missile tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur government will put everything on the line to prevent another war on the Korean Peninsula,\u201d Moon said. \u201cRegardless of whatever twist and turns we could experience, the North Korean nuclear program should absolutely be solved peacefully, and the (South Korean) government and the U.S. government don\u2019t have a different position on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, on Monday met with senior South Korean military and political officials and the local media, and made comments that appeared to be an attempt to ease anxiety while also showing a willingness to back Trump\u2019s warnings if need be.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Korean War remains in limbo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Dunford said the United States wants to peacefully resolve tensions with North Korea, but Washington is also ready to use the \u201cfull range\u201d of its military capabilities in case of provocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dunford is visiting South Korea, Japan and China after a week in which Trump declared the U.S. military \u201clocked and loaded\u201d and said he was ready to unleash \u201cfire and fury\u201d if North Korea continued to threaten the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Korea\u2019s military had said last week it would finalize and send to Kim for approval the plan to fire four ballistic missiles near Guam, which is about 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) from Pyongyang.<\/p>\n\n\n\t