28 Mar 2013

Several years before North Korea could make military strike on the US - academic

2:46 pm on 28 March 2013

An academic says North Korea remains several years away from being to strike at US bases in Guam and Hawaii, but its capacity is improving.

North Korea has repeated threats this week to target United States military bases in Hawaii, Guam, and the mainland.

The country's High Command says it is placing its long range artillery and strategic rocket forces on high alert.

The head of the strategic and defence studies centre at the Australian National University, Brendan Taylor, says as the US looks to reduce its military presence in Japan and South Korea, Guam is becoming more important.

"The United States has looked to shift a number of those troops to Guam, and that has certainly heightened the strategic significance of Guam in recent years. So certainly residents on Guam will have reason over the coming years to be more worried about a variety of potential threats, but certainly the gravest of those, I stil would very much doubt that it will come from North Korea."

Brendan Taylor