North Korea renews Guam threat before joint naval exercise

The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Michigan approaches a naval base in Busan, South Korea. The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Michigan approaches a naval base in Busan, South Korea. Photo: Ha Kyung-min, Associated Press Photo: Ha Kyung-min, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close North Korea renews Guam threat before joint naval exercise 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

SEOUL — As the United States and South Korea prepared for a joint naval exercise next week, North Korean officials on Friday renewed their threat to launch ballistic missiles near Guam, a U.S. territory in the western Pacific.

The drill, which involves the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, is scheduled to begin Monday in waters east and west of South Korea. The 10-day exercise will check the allies’ “communications, interoperability and partnership,” the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.

The nuclear-powered submarine Michigan arrived at the South Korean port of Busan on Friday. U.S. and South Korean warplanes also will join the exercise.

In recent months, President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, have amplified their countries’ military standoff by exchanging bellicose statements and personal insults.

Although both South Korea and the United States insist next week’s drill is defensive in nature, North Korea considers such war games rehearsals for invasion.

It remains unclear whether North Korea will lash out with a weapons test during the exercise, as it often has in the past.

On Friday, a researcher at the Institute for American Studies at the North Korean Foreign Ministry warned that the joint exercise, as well as a flight by two U.S. B-1B bombers over South Korea on Tuesday, compelled the North to “take military counteraction.”

The researcher, Kim Kwang Hak, did not elaborate but recalled North Korea’s August warning that it could launch missiles near Guam, home to the U.S. air base from which the B-1B long-range bombers took off on Tuesday. Kim Jong Un has said he would watch the Americans before deciding when to launch an “enveloping fire” around Guam.

“We have already warned several times that we will take counteractions for self-defense, including a salvo of missiles into waters near the U.S. territory of Guam,” Kim Kwang Hak, the researcher, told the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on Friday. “The U.S. military action hardens our determination that the U.S. should be tamed with fire and lets us take our hand closer to the ‘trigger’ for taking the toughest countermeasure.”

North Korea has made similar threats against the United States for decades. But Trump has added to tensions in recent weeks by employing similarly tough talk, threatening to “totally destroy” or rain down “fire and fury” on North Korea. He has said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with North Korea.

Despite Trump’s tough talk, White House chief of staff John Kelly said Thursday that North Korea’s nuclear threat was “manageable” for now.

Kelly added that Americans should be concerned that the North is getting closer to achieving the ability to hit the mainland U.S. with its missiles. He said there was already “great concern” about Americans living in Guam.

“Right now, we think the threat is manageable,” Kelly told reporters at the White House. “Let’s hope that diplomacy works.”

Choe Sang-Hun is a New York Times writer.