Story highlights North Korea is verbally "firing back" at recent moves by the U.S., an analyst says 
 
 Pyongyang has expressed anger that the U.S. is flying B-52s over South Korea 
 
 The flights are part of annual military exercises 
 
 Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have flared since the North's latest nuclear test 
 
 The North Korean military issued a fresh burst of ominous rhetoric Thursday, warning that U.S. bases in Guam and Japan are within its "striking range." 
 
 The statement from the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army, carried by the North's state-run news agency, follows the announcement by the United States this week that its B-52 bombers were making flights over South Korea as part of annual military exercises. 
 
 "The U.S. should not forget that the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam where the B-52s take off and naval bases in Japan proper and Okinawa where nuclear-powered submarines are launched are within the striking range of the DPRK's precision strike means," the North Korean military said Thursday. 
 
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 Despite Pyongyang's rhetoric, no U.S. Navy submarines are based in Okinawa or anywhere else in Japan, although they may make calls at U.S. bases there. DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name. 
 
 Citing what it called the United States' "nuclear blackmail and threat," the North said it that it, too, would "take corresponding military actions." 
 
 Pyongyang had already reacted angrily to the B-52 flights, warning Wednesday of "strong military counteraction" if the planes made more sorties over the Korean Peninsula. 
 
 Angry words after new sanctions 
 
 Tensions have spiked in the region since North Korea carried out its latest underground nuclear test last month, the first under its new young leader Kim Jong Un, prompting the United Nations Security Council to respond by toughening sanctions on the secretive regime. 
 
 The sanctions enraged the North further, and during the week when the Security Council was voting on them, it ratcheted up its threats, suggesting it could carry out a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States and South Korea. 
 
 Although analysts and American officials say Pyongyang is still a long way from being able to carry out such an attack on the U.S. mainland, the United States' bases in Japan and Guam appear to be within range of the North's conventional weapons. 
 
 In its comments Thursday, "the Kim Jong Un regime is just firing back" at its enemies in response to the B-52 flights and the military exercises of which they're a part, said Lee Jung-hoon, a professor of international relations at Yonsei University in Seoul. 
 
 He said that the U.N. sanctions were also likely to be fueling the North's ire, but that the regime's threats were largely driven by domestic concerns. 
 
 "They're doing all this to prop up the regime," Lee said. 
 
 The military first strategy 
 
 Since Kim took over from his father as the head of the North Korean government in late 2011, he appears to have maintained the pursuit of a stronger military deterrent rather than adopting a more conciliatory approach to relations with South Korea and the United States. 
 
 The result has been a major foreign policy headache for U.S. President Barack Obama, with Kim showing more interest in dialogue with the basketball star Dennis Rodman than U.S. diplomats. 
 
 As well as the nuclear test, his government has conducted two long-range rocket launches -- one that failed and one that succeeded -- both of which were widely viewed as tests of ballistic missile technology. 
 
 Kim has also revamped the military's leadership, ousting some generals and promoting others. 
 
 The nuclear test and rocket launches have shattered hopes of any new talks on the North's nuclear program in the near future. 
 
 Indeed, Pyongyang has said recently that the program is not up for negotiation and announced that previous nonaggression treaties with Seoul no longer apply. 
 
 A new North Korea 
 
 The regime's unabashed declarations about its nuclear weapons, which it had been much cagier about in the past, show that "it's not the same North Korea as 10 years ago," Lee said. 
 
 The United States and other global powers need to "formulate a whole new strategy" to address the changed situation, according to Lee. 
 
 "The way we've been dealing with it for the past two decades has failed," he said of the regime. "It has become close to being able to deploy nuclear weapons." 
 
 Although U.S. officials say they don't believe North Korea is in a position to strike the United States at the moment, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week announced plans to deploy additional ground-based missile interceptors on the West Coast as part of efforts to enhance the nation's ability to defend itself from attack. 
 
 "The reason that we are doing what we are doing, and the reason we are advancing our program here for homeland security, is to not take any chances, is to stay ahead of the threat and to assure any contingency," Hagel said at the time. ||||| Pyongyang says it will launch four missiles into waters ‘30-40km’ off US territory in Pacific Ocean 
 
 North Korea has defied threats of “fire and fury” from Donald Trump, deriding his warning as a “load of nonsense” and announcing a detailed plan to launch missiles aimed at the waters off the coast of the US Pacific territory of Guam. 
 
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 A statement attributed to General Kim Rak Gyom, the head of the country’s strategic forces, declared: “Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him”. The general outlined a plan to carry out a demonstration launch of four intermediate-range missiles that would fly over Japan and then land in the sea around Guam, “enveloping” the island. 
 
 “The Hwasong-12 rockets to be launched by the KPA [Korean People’s Army] will cross the sky above Shimani, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures of Japan,” the statement said. “They will fly for 3,356.7 km for 1,065 seconds and hit the waters 30 to 40km away from Guam.” 
 
 The statement said the plan for this show of force would be ready by the middle of this month and then await orders from the commander-in-chief, Kim Jong-un. 
 
 The statement was clearly designed as a show of bravado, calling the Trump administration’s bluff after the president’s threat and a statement from the defence secretary, James Mattis, both stressing the overwhelming power of the US military. “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met by fire and fury like the world has never seen,” Trump said on Wednesday. 
 
 The response from Pyongyang was its most public and detailed threat to date, and evidently meant to goad the US president. Trump had “let out a load of nonsense about ‘fire and fury’ failing to grasp the ongoing grave situation. This is extremely getting on the nerves of the infuriated Hwasong artillerymen of the KPA.” 
 
 The US has a naval base in Guam and the island is home to Andersen air base, which has six B-1B heavy bombers. According to NBC news the non-nuclear bombers have made 11 practice sorties since May in readiness for a potential strike on North Korea. The remote island is home to 162,000 people. 
 
 Q&A Why is North Korea threatening Guam? Show Hide Guam, a 210 sq mile sovereign US territory in the western Pacific Ocean, is used by America as a strategic military base. Almost a third of its land is controlled by the US military and about 6,000 American troops are based there. 
 
 The island's location, within range of North Korean medium- and long-range missiles, and military significance to the US make it a logical target for Pyongyang. 
 
 As recently as Monday, two US air force B-1B bombers flew from Guam to join their counterparts from South Korea and Japan for a mission over the Korean peninsula, about 2,100 miles away. Read more 
 
 
 
 South Korea’s military said on Thursday that North Korea’s statements were a challenge against Seoul and the US-South Korea alliance. Joint chiefs of staff spokesman Roh Jae-cheon told a media briefing that South Korea was prepared to act immediately against any North Korean provocation. 
 
 Japan’s chief government spokesman said the country could “never tolerate this”. “North Korea’s actions are obviously provocative to the region as well as to the security of the international community,” Yoshihide Suga said. 
 
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 The announcement on the North Korean state news service KCNA came at the end of two days of brinksmanship which began with the leak of a US intelligence report that Pyongyang had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile. This was followed by Trump’s warning of “fire and fury”. On Wednesday the US defence secretary, James Mattis, said a North Korean attack would risk the “end of its regime and the destruction of its people”. 
 
 On Thursday, Trump’s deputy assistant, Sebastian Gorka, declined to tone down the rhetoric, warning Pyongyang: “Do not challenge the United States because you will pay a cost if you do so” 
 
 Asked if the threat of a strike, rather than an actual attack, would be enough to provoke a response, Gorka told the BBC: “If you threaten a nation, then what should you expect; a stiffly worded letter to be sent by courier? Is that what the UK would do if a nation threatened a nuclear-tipped missile launched against any of the UK’s territories?” 
 
 Damian Green, the UK’s first secretary of state, urged the Trump administration to use UN processes to resolve the crisis. “It’s obviously in all our interests to make sure that nothing escalates,” Green said on a visit to Edinburgh. “We are very strongly in support of the UN process, which has and continues to put pressure on North Korea to stop acting in an irresponsible way.” 
 
 In the event of a missile launch by North Korea, the US military faces the dilemma of trying to intercept the incoming missiles and risking humiliation if it fails. Trump would have to decide whether to try to carry out a pre-emptive strike on the Hwasong launchpads or a retaliation strike if the launch went ahead. The North Korean military has frequently tested missiles that land in the sea off the Japanese coast, without a military response from Tokyo. 
 
 
 
 “For the [North Koreans] to telegraph a move like this is extraordinary. But it’s probably their way of trying not to trigger a war,” said Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He said that if the launch went ahead as laid out in the statement, it gave US the opportunity to concentrate its ballistic defences in that area, to give them a better chance to shoot down the incoming missiles. 
 
 “The reason you can’t shoot down a test is that it doesn’t enter a defended area. But that wouldn’t be the case with ‘bracketing fire’,” Pollack said in a thread of tweets. He argued that the exchange of threats and the missile plans underlined the need to open a military hotline between the US and North Korea to mitigate the dangers of catastrophic miscalculation by either side. 
 
 
 
 “If they do carry out that plan, both sides might discover that they need a crisis management mechanism sooner than not,” Pollack said. 
 
 Q&A What are North Korea's nuclear capabilities? Show Hide North Korea has carried out five nuclear tests since 2006, so it unquestionably has the capacity to create some form of nuclear bomb. 
 
 To function effectively, however, the bomb needs to be small enough to fit on to a missile. Some experts believe the North has already "miniaturised" its nuclear capability, while others believe the regime is still several years away from being able to do so. Japan's defence ministry warned on 8 August that it was possible that Pyongyang had mastered miniaturisation. 
 
 North Korea would also need a reliable delivery system for any bomb. Its proven short- and medium-range missiles could reach South Korea and Japan. In July it test-launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles, placing US cities in range of potential attack, according to US experts. 
 
 Mattis’s reminder to Pyongyang that the allied militaries “possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth” capped an unprecedented 24 hours of sabre-rattling sparked by Donald Trump’s surprise threat to rain “fire and fury” down on the Pyongyang regime. 
 
 Despite the harsh rhetoric, there was no change in US military deployments or alert status. Mattis couched his remarks in the language of traditional deterrence, making clear that such overwhelming force would be used in the event of a North Korean attack. 
 
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 Trump – without consulting his own security staff – had warned of a devastating onslaught “like the world has never seen” if Kim’s government persisted in threats against the US. But that line was crossed within hours when Pyongyang announced it was “carefully examining” a plan for a missile strike and “enveloping fire” around Guam. 
 
 The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, also spent much of Wednesday struggling to contain the fallout from Trump’s threats, assuring Americans they could “sleep well at night”, and reassuring shocked allies that there was “no imminent threat of war”. 
 
 • This article was amended on 10 August 2017 to correct a statement from Joshua Pollack. ||||| Hagatna, Guam (CNN) A North Korean plan to fire four missiles near the US Pacific territory of Guam will be ready for Kim Jong Un's consideration in days, state media has reported, as an unprecedented exchange of military threats between Washington and Pyongyang intensifies. 
 
 The intermediate-range missiles would be fired east and over Japan before landing around 30 to 40 kilometers (18 to 25 miles) off the coast of the tiny island if the plan is implemented, according to state-run KCNA. Guam is more than 3,000 kilometers from North Korea. 
 
 The plan is the latest provocation in a back-and-forth with Washington, which came to a boil on Tuesday when US President Donald Trump appeared to threaten nuclear war on the pariah state. 
 
 "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States," Trump said. "They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before." 
 
 The North Korean threat has been on the Trump administration's foreign-policy agenda since the President took office in January, but it has taken center stage since Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles last month that it says are capable of hitting the US mainland. 
 
 North Korea responded to Trump's comments through a state media report, criticizing the US President for having "let out a load of nonsense about 'fire and fury,'" and accused him of "failing to grasp the on-going grave situation." 
 
 The report states that "sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him." 
 
 North Korea has also slammed US and UN sanctions placed on the country over its recent increase in missile testing, and has used those measures to justify its renewed aggressiveness. 
 
 White House streamlines messaging 
 
 The sudden escalation in tensions in the past week came after US intelligence analysts assessed that North Korea had produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, according to multiple sources familiar with the analysis of North Korea's missile and nuclear program. 
 
 Such a development would mean North Korea is a step closer to having the capability of striking the US with a nuclear-tipped missile. 
 
 There is no indication that the Hwasong-12 missiles mentioned in the Guam plan would be tipped with nuclear warheads. 
 
 The White House was accused of sending mixed messages on its North Korea stance, with Trump's fiery comments juxtaposed with US State Secretary Rex Tillerson's more diplomatic approach, which focused on dialogue. 
 
 But those messages are beginning to converge. 
 
 Tillerson on Wednesday backed Trump's comment while trying to allay fears that a military confrontation was imminent. 
 
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 And US Defense Secretary James Mattis on Wednesday also supported Trump's controversial remarks. 
 
 "The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people," Mattis said in a statement Wednesday, using an acronym for North Korea. 
 
 Trump's comments have been slammed as incendiary by his political opposition as well as some foreign powers, but have been supported by others. 
 
 Four rockets flying 1,065 seconds 
 
 The KCNA report includes detailed provisional plans to launch four rockets "above Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi Prefectures of Japan," and specified they would fly 3,356 kilometers (2,000 miles) for 1,065 seconds as a "crucial warning to the US." Following that flight path, the missiles would also have to travel over the Japanese prefecture of Ehime. 
 
 North Korea's estimated splashdown of the missiles would place them just outside Guam's 12-nautical-mile territorial waters, but well within its 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone. 
 
 The Korean People's Army Strategic Force will present the final plan for the launch to Kim by mid-August and "wait for his order," the report said. 
 
 Should Kim give the go-ahead, it would not be the first time a North Korean rocket has crossed over Japanese territory. 
 
 Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said that his government "can never tolerate North Korea's provocations," and urged the rogue state to comply with UN resolutions regarding its missile and nuclear programs. 
 
 Likely to follow threat through? 
 
 A South Korean military official says that there have been no indications that Pyongyang is readying a strike. 
 
 "Currently, there is no unusual movement related to a direct provocation," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Roh Jae-cheon said in a press briefing. 
 
 Some analysts do not think that Kim will follow through on this very specific threat against the US territory. 
 
 North Korea is "trying to ratchet up the threat to create political pressure in the US and elsewhere to get talks," says Carl Schuster, a Hawaii Pacific University professor and former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center. 
 
 "They've noticed that we've never sought conflict with an adversary who can hit our territory (and they) hope that this (threat) will force a more diplomatic line." 
 
 Meredith Sumpter, Asia director of the Eurasia Group and a long-time Asia analyst, says that despite the escalation in tensions, "we are no closer to actual military confrontation now then we were before. 
 
 "Kim Jong Un says a lot of things and he makes a lot of threats, but at the end of the day he knows that if he should undertake any kind of military strike against the US and its allies, the counter response will likely be the end of his regime," she told CNN. 
 
 Why Guam? 
 
 A state media report Wednesday gave first signs of a Guam strike plan and mentioned a potential strike on Andersen Air Force Base, designed "to send a serious warning signal to the US." 
 
 Why is North Korea threatening to attack Guam? The tiny Pacific island, the largest in the Marianas group, is home to two significant US military bases. 
 
 Bomber sorties flown above South Korea Tuesday originated from Guam's Andersen Air Force Base. 
 
 Around 5,000 US military personnel are based on the island, which is a US territory. 
 
 It is often referred to as the "tip of the spear" and home to the US' most westerly military installations. 
 
 Except US bases in Japan and South Korea, it's the closest US base to North Korea. 
 
 The base is one of two on the Pacific island, which are the closest bases on US soil to North Korea. The US has flown bombers from Guam over the Korean peninsula in military drills with Japan and South Korea. 
 
 Dubbed the "tip of the spear," Guam is a key part of the US presence in the Pacific and is home to thousands of American service members and their families. 
 
 As part of its defenses on Guam, the US installed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in 2013. The THAAD system is specifically designed to shoot down ballistic missiles. 
 
 Also, the US routinely uses Aegis-equipped warships around the island chain of the Marianas, of which Guam is the largest.
– After the US announced it's flying B-52 bombers over South Korea, the North is issuing its latest warning: US military bases in Guam and Japan are in its "striking range." Said the country's military: "The US should not forget that the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam where the B-52s take off and naval bases in Japan ... where nuclear-powered submarines are launched are within the striking range of (North Korea's) precision strike means." Pyongyang said it would "take corresponding military actions" over US "nuclear blackmail and threat." The bases do seem to be within the North's conventional-weapons range, CNN notes. Meanwhile, the North announced an air raid warning today, calling on military units to be ready, according to South Korea—but the warning was apparently linked to a defense drill, Reuters reports.