FAIRBANKS, Alaska — A U.S. military general has told Alaska business owners that he's more worried about North Korea's missile advancements than he is about the country's current military capabilities.





Air Force Lt. Gen. Ken Wilsbach made the comments at a Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce luncheon, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Wednesday.





"My assessment, very unofficially, is they're overpromising on what they can do so far," he said. "The concerning thing for me is that they're getting better. A few years ago, they couldn't do what they can do now."





Wilsbach is the commander of the 11th Air Force based in Anchorage.





Wilsbach also said he is concerned that Russia is building up its Arctic region offensive military capability but that the U.S. has a strong defensive capability in Alaska.





"If you really want to keep the Arctic a peaceful place where heretofore it has been, then why are you building offensive capabilities?" he said. "My questions is, are the Russians taking a page out of the Chinese playbook ... whereby they declare an area is now Chinese sovereign territory (and) have overwhelming military force in that area?"