Calvo said there were “several levels of defence” strategically placed to protect Guam and he had been assured by the White House that a strike on the territory would be considered an attack on the United States.<\/p>\n
The Pacific island of Guam remained outwardly calm on Wednesday in the face of a threatened North Korean attack, and a senior official in the US territory urged people to \u201crelax and enjoy paradise\u201d. After US President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with \u201cfire and fury\u201d over its nuclear ambitions yesterday, Pyongyang raised the stakes just hours later \u2014 saying it was considering missile strikes near US strategic military installations on Guam.<\/p>\n
In a televised address to the 162,000 residents on the Western Pacific island, Governor Eddie Calvo said Guam was working with Washington \u201cto ensure our safety\u201d. \u201cI want to reassure the people of Guam that currently there is no threat to our island,\u201d he said. George Charfauros, the territory\u2019s homeland security adviser, said there was \u201c0.000001 percent chance of the North Korean missile hitting Guam\u201d.<\/p>\n
His advice to residents to \u201crelax and enjoy the paradise\u201d appeared to hit home. There was no evidence of panic buying in stores Wednesday and gas stations were operating normally. Shop worker Chelsea Nu told AFP the threat of attack was not even a conversation topic in her store. \u201cI haven\u2019t heard people talk about it. The customer traffic is normal. They\u2019re just buying school supplies because the school\u2019s just opened.\u201d Guam, which advertises pristine beaches, clear blue skies and \u201cworld-famous sunsets\u201d is a popular destination, with tourism a key pillar of its economy.<\/p>\n
But it is also home to about 6,000 US troops and houses two US military installations \u2014 the Andersen Air Force Base and the Naval Base Guam. Despite the significant contribution the military makes to the local economy, there is a small but growing opposition to its presence. Nationalists argue the territory is a potential target of aggression due to the presence of US forces.<\/p>\n
But Calvo said it was the military which provided protection. \u201cThose who are against the military will keep that distinction and make that argument. In the same manner, those who support the presence of the military on Guam will argue that this is what keeps us safe,\u201d he said. Guam was described by President Barack Obama\u2019s defence secretary Ashton Carter as \u201can important strategic hub for the US military in the Western Pacific\u201d.<\/p>\n
Calvo said there were \u201cseveral levels of defence\u201d strategically placed to protect Guam and he had been assured by the White House that a strike on the territory would be considered an attack on the United States. \u201cThey have said that America will be defended. I also want to remind national media that Guam is American soil and we have 200,000 Americans in Guam and the Marianas. We are not just a military installation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Calvo said there were “several levels of defence” strategically placed to protect Guam and he had been assured by the White House that a strike on the territory would be considered an attack on the United States. The Pacific island of Guam remained outwardly calm on Wednesday in the face of a threatened North Korean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1750,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1748\/revisions\/1750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}