North Korean Threat to Guam Tests Credibility of Kim and Trump<br />Even though missiles from the North would almost certainly carry dummy warheads, analysts said, a failure to intercept them would deal Mr. Trump a mortifying setback<br />and could even weaken the rationale for installing an American missile defense system in South Korea.<br />The North also said its Hwasong-12 missiles would fly over southern Japan en route toward<br />Guam, which would be the first time a North Korean missile flew over the country.<br />For Mr. Trump, whose dire warnings to North Korea — which he further escalated on Thursday — have echoed Mr. Kim’s own screeds, a successful North Korean test would be an embarrassment<br />that could force him into exceedingly difficult choices about military action.<br />On Thursday, the newspaper of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party, Rodong Sinmun, dedicated all six pages to the mass gathering, which brimmed with anti-American slogans<br />and shouts of a “do-or-die determination to defend the fatherland.”<br />Even while the missile test is not finalized, it would be difficult for Mr. Kim to reverse course once he approves, analysts said.<br />If he did, Mr. Kim would be seen as weak in the standoff with the United States, said Kim<br />Dong-yub, an analyst at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.<br />If the United States were to decide to intercept the missiles, it would be the first test of<br />its missile defense system’s ability to shoot down actual missiles from an enemy state.
