Guam Gov: There's concern, worry, no panic about N. Korea
Fox News Exclusive: Eddie Calvo, Governor of Guam, says the American territory is prepared for 'any contingency' if North Korea attacks, but has encouraged residents to go on with daily lives despite the rogue nation's 'bellicose' comments #Tucker
The governor of Guam said Thursday there was no “heightened threat” on the island after North Korea issued a statement that it would develop a plan by mid-August to launch four missiles at the U.S. Pacific territory.
Guam Gov. Eddie Calvo dismissed the North’s statements, saying they came from a “positon of fear,” Reuters reported.
On Wednesday the North Korean state-run media agency, KCNA, released a statement saying the communist nation would complete its plan to attack waters near Guam within just a week, adding that the action against Guam would be "an effective remedy for restraining the frantic moves of the U.S. in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity."
The statement followed a tweet by President Trump praising what he described as the growing U.S. nuclear arsenal, adding, “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
North Korea dismissed Trump’s recent threat of ‘”fire and fury” as a “load of nonsense.”
Calvo went on to say that while there is some concern among the public, there are defense mechanisms in place:
“There is a defense umbrella contained within South Korea, there is a defense umbrella for Japan, there are naval assets between Korea, Japan and Guam, and there is a missile defense system of Guam that make up a multi-level defensive umbrella.”
Guam is home to a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast Guard group, Reuters reported, as well as 163,000 residents.
Looking to reassure the people of Guam, Calvo said, “at this point, based on what facts are known, there is no need to have any concern regards heightening the threat level.”
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Guam, in part to also reassure its population. White en route, Tillerson explained Trump's "fire and fury" remarks.
"I think what the president was doing was sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language," Tillerson said, as Fox News reported.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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