BREAKING North Korea Considering a Strike on Guam

This is a developing story. Return to this post for updates.

UPDATE 1

From various wire services:

North Korea said on Wednesday it is "carefully examining" a plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam with missiles, just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump told the North that any threat to the United States would be met with "fire and fury".

A spokesman for the Korean People's Army, in a statement carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency, said the strike plan will be "put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment" once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision.

In another statement citing a different military spokesman, North Korea also said it could carry out a pre-emptive operation if the United States showed signs of provocation.

UPDATE 2

Map of Guam and North Korea

UPDATE 3

Uh I'm seeing too many "what is Guam?" tweets. GUAM:
-US territory
-Has two US military bases
-No this isn't the 1st time NK threatened Guam

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) August 8, 2017

-Guam is the westernmost US land
-The 2 US bases: Naval Base & Andersen Air Force Base
-Recent tests showed Guam is within reach of NK https://t.co/md7K26Y0aP

— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) August 8, 2017

UPDATE 4

Via The Wall Street Journal:

 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his military’s strategic forces to carefully examine an operational plan for a missile strike on the U.S. military base on Guam, making a rare explicit threat to attack the U.S.

The threat was made by North Korea’s official media on Wednesday morning and came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump cautioned North Korea to not “make any more threats” to the U.S., warning of a response of “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

While North Korea’s state media regularly warns of strikes on the U.S. homeland and other U.S. military assets in Asia, the threats are usually vague in detail and rarely linked to a direct order from Mr. Kim.

In this case, however, a spokesman for the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army was quoted in state media saying that the force was carefully examining the operational plan and would soon report it to Mr. Kim. The plan, the spokesman said, “will be put into practice in a multi-concurrent and consecutive way any moment once Kim Jong Un, supreme commander of the nuclear force of the DPRK, makes a decision.”

The report said that the plan envisages a missile attack using the Hwasong-12 and targeting the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. The U.S. has sent B-1B bombers at the Guam base to fly over the Korean Peninsula several times this year.

The intermediate-range Hwasong-12 was successfully test-launched in May this year. It was North Korea’s longest-range weapon until last month, when Pyongyang on two occasions successfully test-launched the Hwasong-14, an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say is capable of reaching much of the U.S. homeland.