US troops on high alert

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 04/04/2013

Reporter: Mark Willacy

The United States says it's taking North Korea's threats seriously and as well as putting its troops on the peninsula on alert it is sending an anti-missile system to the US territory of Guam.


TONY JONES, PRESENTER: North Korea has dramatically ramped up its war-like rhetoric and the United States says it's taking the threats seriously. US troops are on high alert on the Korean Peninsula and the Pentagon is sending in anti-missile system to the US territory of Guam two years ahead of schedule. North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports.

MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: The US is already deployed stealth fighters and warships in response to the rising tension on the Korean Peninsula. Now, it's sending missile interceptors to Guam.

North Korea's threats grossly exaggerate the isolated nation's real military strength, but US bases on Guam are close enough to be a possible target.

CHUCK HAGEL, US DEFENCE SECRETARY: As they have ratcheted up their bellicose dangerous rhetoric and some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger.

MARK WILLACY: And today South Korean officials said their surveillance had revealed that the North has moved a mid-range missile into position, with Japan and South Korea in range of a strike.

Pyongyang's threats to wage war on its enemies are almost a daily feature of its media broadcasts. In today's version, the Government says it's ratified what it calls a "diversified nuclear strike" and a "merciless military operation", which could come today or tomorrow. The language may be over-the-top, but it's unnerving many.

STEPHEN SMITH, DEFENCE MINISTER: What we want is to see calm restored to the Korean Peninsula and the best way for that to occur is for Korea to desist in its provocation and for countries, in particular China, to urge that upon North Korea

MARK WILLACY: The door is also closing on one of the few remaining areas of cooperation between North and South. For a second day, North Korea has prevented workers from crossing the border to a joint industrial zone and is now threatening to shut down the whole project. It would cost the North one of its few sources of cash, but it seems it's a price it's prepared to pay.

Mark Willacy, Lateline.


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