NKorea is Forcing the US to Filled the Area With Military Assets

South Korean anti-aircraft armored vehicles move over a temporary bridge during a river-crossing military

 drill in Hwacheon, near the border with North Korea on April 1, 2013.

Photo by Kim Jae-Hwan/AFP/Getty Images 

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Just When It Looked Like They Were Out of Threats: Reuters: "North Korea said it had 'ratified' a merciless attack against the United States, potentially involving a 'diversified nuclear strike.' "

The Statement: "We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means of the DPRK and that the merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified," a spokesman for the North Korean military said in a statement carried by state media.

Not Something to Laugh Off: NBC News: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday that North Korea's latest provocations are 'a real and clear danger and threat' to U.S. interests and Washington is taking them seriously. 'We are doing everything we can ... to defuse that situation on the peninsula,' Hagel said after a speech at the National Defense University at Fort McNair."

What We're Going to Do About It: Washington Post: "The United States will deploy a sophisticated anti-missile defense system to Guam in response to North Korean threats to U.S. military bases in the Pacific, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THAAD) is a relatively new land-based system designed to destroy incoming short, medium and intermediate-range missiles by crashing into them in the air. Only two batteries of the system, produced by Lockheed Martin, are currently deployed, both at Fort Bliss, Tex. ... The announcement followed North Korea’s banning of South Korean workers from entering a joint industrial complex near the demilitarized zone. Obama administration officials had said earlier that the move would signal a more serious crisis beyond the bellicose rhetoric issued by North Korea over the past several weeks."

More on the Industrial Complex: New York Times: "North Korea blocked South Koreans on Wednesday from crossing the heavily armed border to a jointly operated industrial park, raising doubt about the future of the last remaining major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. ... The move came four days after North Korea threatened to shut down the industrial park ... out of anger over United Nations sanctions and joint military drills that the United States and South Korea are conducting on the Korean Peninsula. ... Officials feared that if the one-way blockade continued, it would asphyxiate the eight-year-old industrial park, which produced $470 million worth of goods last year, helping provide a badly needed source of cash for the North, which faces heavy global sanctions."

Foreign Policy: The North Korea Deal That Wasn't

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to the Slatest PM. Follow your afternoon host on Twitter at @JoshVoorhees and the whole team at @slatest.

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