HARLOW: This morning, North Korea renewing its threat to launch missiles toward the U.S. territory of Guam.</s>BERMAN: North Korean state media says the U.S. should be tamed with fire and the nation has its hand closer to the trigger as it considers counter actions for self-defense. Want to get the latest with CNN's Will Ripley, who of course has been to North Korea many, many times now. So, Will, what is with this new fresh round of rhetoric. We have not heard about Guam for some weeks?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have not, but I think it's noteworthy that we are hearing about it now, John and Monday, because on Monday, the U.S. and South Korea will be kicking off with yet another round of joint military exercises. These are naval drills. And we know that North Korea has been very unhappy lately because the U.S. deployed a nuclear submarine to the region and aircraft carrier to the region and these navel drills kick off and the naval drills are often an impetus for North Korea to conduct provocative acts. Over the last two years after the joint military exercises, they conducted two nuclear tests. They've launched scores of missiles and so now you have this new article in North Korean media essentially threatening once again to launch these missiles towards Guam. And I want to show the last two North Korean missile launches took a trajectory over Northern Japan. They traveled about 2,300 miles. Had those missiles been pointed to the south, they could have easily reached the U.S. territory of Guam, home to more than 160,000 U.S. citizens along with key military assets. This would be North Korea's most provocative missile test ever if they follow-through with it. But the messaging for North Korea, they never ruled out launching towards Guam. Kim Jong-un back in August said that he was going to watch U.S. behavior. And if the United States in their view acted recklessly then North Korea said they would potentially go forward with the launch towards Guam, and of course, since then we've only seen tensions escalate. President Trump called Kim Jong-un "Little Rocket Man."
North Korea Threat To Launch Missiles Toward Guam.