President Donald Trump has announced plans to build a “state-of-the-art” missile defense system to counter threats from North Korea.
On the recently updated White House website, the administration promises to make the U.S. military “strong again” by investing more funding into the armed forces and U.S. defense systems, including missile defense. North Korea, with its improved missile capabilities, is an increasingly dangerous foreign policy threat that the incoming administration will inevitably be forced to address.
“Our military needs every asset at its disposal to defend America. We cannot allow other nations to surpass our military capability. The Trump Administration will pursue the highest level of military readiness,” a White House policy statement reads.
“We will develop a state-of-the-art missile defense system to protect against missile-based attacks from states like Iran and North Korea,” the policy statement explained.
The incoming administration has yet to provide details on the type of system it hopes to develop.
In the weeks leading up to the presidential inauguration, Pyongyang made repeated threats signaling an impending test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
“We have reached the final stage of preparations to test-launch an intercontinental ballistic missile,” Kim Jong-un said during his New Year’s address.
One week later, the North Korean foreign ministry announced that the country was prepared to test an ICBM “anytime and anywhere.”
Shortly thereafter, the Rodong Sinmun, a leading state-sponsored newspaper, wrote that North Korea’s ICBMs will “send the shiver down [America’s] spine.“
“Just because the U.S. is located more than ten thousand kilometers away does not make the country safe,” the paper added.
South Korean media outlets reported Thursday that North Korea loaded two missiles suspected to be ICBMs on road-mobile launchers in possible preparation for a test in the near future.
After Kim’s New Year’s address, in which he indicated that North Korea was on the verge of developing a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S., Trump tweeted, “It won’t happen.”
A separate statement on Trump’s plans for an “America first foreign policy” on the White House website asserts that U.S. military dominance “must be unquestioned.”
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