The Pentagon said yesterday it was sending an advanced ballistic missile defence system to Guam in the coming weeks, as US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel cited a “real and clear” danger from North Korea.
North Korea has singled out US military bases in Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, and Hawaii among its potential targets in threats in recent weeks that have put the Korean peninsula on edge and triggered a change in the US defence posture and missile defence planning.
Hagel said those actions had threatened the interests of South Korea and Japan, but he also cited their direct threats against Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast.
Shortly after Hagel spoke, the Pentagon said it was deploying a Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD), which includes a truck-mounted launcher, interceptor missiles, an AN/TPY-2 tracking radar and an integrated fire control system.
“The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and stands ready to defend US territory, our allies and our national interests,” a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
North Korea closed access to a joint factory zone with South Korea earlier yesterday, officials said, putting at risk $2 billion a year in trade that is vital for an impoverished state with a huge army, nuclear ambitions and a hungry population.
The move marked an escalation in North Korea’s months-long stand-off with South Korea and its ally Washington. On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it would restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, drawing criticism from the international commun-ity, including China.
In Beijing, China’s deputy foreign minister met ambassadors from the US and both Koreas to express “serious concern” about the Korean peninsula, China’s Foreign Ministry said, in a sign that China is increasingly worried about events spinning out of control. The ministry said the meetings with Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui took place on Tuesday.
South Korea demanded Pyongyang allow access to the Kaesong Industrial Park, which lies just inside North Korea.
It said North Korea would allow the roughly-800 South Korean factory managers and workers in the zone to return home, but added that only 36 had opted to do so yesterday, indicating factories were still operating.
Those remaining in the zone were there by choice but could run out of food because all supplies needed to be trucked in from South Korea, said the Unification Ministry.
The industrial park has not formally stopped operations since it was inaugurated in 2000 as part of efforts to improve ties between the two Koreas. It houses 123 companies and employs 50,000 North Koreans making cheap goods.
Some South Korean experts said the North’s move might be temporary, given that the park is a financial lifeline.
At the South Korean border city of Paju there was a sense of foreboding that Kaesong would be closed permanently, dealing a death blow to the one remaining example of cooperation between the two.
“Trust between North and South will fall apart, as well as the trust we have with our buyers.
“We’re going to end up taking the damage from this,” Lee Eun-haeng, who runs an apparel firm in Kaesong, told Reuters on the southern side of the border.
Lee’s business employs 600 North Koreans who earn $130 on average a month.
The zone has major symbolic value for both North and South Korea. It generates cash for the North and acts as a beacon for the economic prosperity of the South.
North Korea’s latest war of words with Seoul and Washington ratcheted up when the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions on the country for its February 12 nuclear test. At the same time, South Korea and the United States have been staging annual war games, which Pyongyang claims are a prelude to an invasion.
Despite the rhetoric and the cutting of telephone hot lines to the South, Pyongyang has not taken any military action and shows no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong armed forces for war.
That would indicate much of the vitriol is intended for domestic consumption to bolster young leader Kim Jong-un before celebrations marking the anniversary of the birthday of Kim Il-sung, the state’s founder and the younger Kim’s grand-father, on April 15.
“At least until the end of April, when drills end, the North is likely to keep up the tensions as it had done in previous years,” said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think-tank in Seoul.