The Washington Free Beacon:
The governor of Guam, the U.S. territory in the crosshairs of a North Korean missile threat, is confident the tiny island has all the military defense capabilities needed to shield against an attack by the Kim Jong Un regime.
Gov. Eddie Calvo, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon from the governor’s mansion over FaceTime, wearing a colorful Hawaiian shirt, noted the missile defense systems on Guam and its surrounding territories, including U.S. military ships deployed off the coast, as credible protections against attack.
“I don’t mean to downplay the threat, but do I look like a stressed out guy?” he said, laughing. “Look, when it comes to a missile attack, especially nonnuclear, Guam is probably the best—I don’t mean to brag—but the most prepared of any American community.”
The sentiment was echoed by a spokesman for the Joint Region Marianas, who said in an email the military command “always maintains a high state of readiness and has the capabilities to counter any threat, so additional elevated measures were not required.”
Though North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday backed off an earlier threat to strike Guam with four intermediate-range ballistic missiles, he warned he could swiftly reverse the decision depending on the actions of the “foolish Yankees.”
The threat to attack Guam was not Kim’s first. North Korea has used Guam as a pawn several times before, given its close proximity to Pyongyang and value to the U.S. as a strategic military outpost in the Pacific. The island is 2,100 miles southeast of Pyongyang, closer to North Korea than it is to Hawaii, and lies some 8,000 miles away from Washington, D.C…
