North Korea Drawing Up Plans To Drop Four Missiles Into Waters Near Guam, Kim Jong-un Says

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country’s military would create an “enveloping fire” around U.S. territory Guam, following bellicose words from President Donald Trump, who said North Korea would be faced with “fire and fury” the likes of which the world has never seen, if the North Korean leader continued to make threats against the U.S.

Using its own warlike words, the North’s military said on Wednesday that it would “burn up all the objects” in border regions of the South, including Seoul,  South Korea, “the moment the U.S. reckless attempt at pre-emptive attack is spotted” and that “the whole of the southern half” of Korea would be its target.

On Thursday, North Korea said it was drawing up plans to launch four intermediate-range ballistic missiles into waters near Guam in the Western Pacific to teach President Trump a lesson. According to North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, the plan would see four of the country’s Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles flying over the three southern Japanese prefectures of Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi before hitting the ocean about 19 to 25 miles from the coast of Guam.

Eddie Baza Calvo, Guam’s governor, played the down threat of a North Korean attack in a video address on Wednesday.

“I want to reassure the people of Guam that currently there is no threat to our island or the Marianas,” he said, referring to the nearby Northern Mariana Islands chain, a United States commonwealth, according to The New York Times. Mr. Calvo said officials and military commanders were “prepared for any eventuality.”

According to The Times, Guam is a potential target because it is a strategic American military outpost and home to nuclear-equipped bombers that can strike North Korea. Just this week two United States B-1 bombers flew from Guam over the Korean Peninsula. And North Korean missile tests suggest it is within range of the country’s arsenal.

While Guam is used to threats from North Korea, several residents said the current situation felt more dangerous, pointing to the North’s advances in nuclear weaponry, and Mr. Trump’s coarse language.

And some residents of Guam chafed at the news media’s coverage of the North’s threat, according to The Times, which they said focused on the fate of service personnel stationed in Guam rather than on the roughly 160,000 civilians living in the American territory.

“We are Americans, we serve in the U.S. military at a higher rate than any state, but all anyone is talking about is how a strike would impact military personnel and their families,” said Leslie Travis, a 37-year-old attorney.

“The rest of us are proverbially out of sight and out of mind. If someone threatened a strike on California, the national concern wouldn’t be limited to service people at Travis Air Force Base.”

Feature Image: A photo released by the North Korean state news agency purporting to show a missile test in April 2016. The missile was apparently launched from a 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarine and did not travel far.