19 August, 2017
Residents do not pay US income taxes or vote in the general election for USA president.
It's an existential question for this tiny territory now caught between President Trump and North Korea.
American and South Korean officials said they would move forward with large-scale military exercises later this month that North Korea, which has laid out plans to strike near the USA territory of Guam, claims are a rehearsal for war.
"Sim Tack, a senior analyst for private intelligence firm Stratfor, said the Japanese batteries are designed for protecting the area where they are deployed, "(they are) not meant to shoot missiles out of the sky as they pass over Japan at high altitude".
"Concerned parties must exercise restraint and avoid remarks and actions that escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula", it cited Xi as saying.
Asked if people in Guam should be anxious about North Korea's threats, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters en route to Seattle this week, "No".
"Let's see what he does with Guam", Trump said of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un from his golf club in Bedminster, N.J.
Donald Trump with Xi Jinping.
The territory has struggled economically and is known to investors for its municipal bonds, which have so far been relatively unaffected by the saber rattling between Trump and Kim.
In remarks to reporters after a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Trump said the situation with North Korea was "very unsafe and it will not continue". "We think that lots of good things could happen, and we could also have a bad solution".
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on all sides in the North Korean nuclear crisis to act responsibly "to prevent any escalation of tensions" after a days-long war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.
North Korea lashed back Saturday at the USA following Trump's latest warnings.
Guam, the Pacific island that is a United States territory and home to a USA air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and around 6,000 U.S. military personnel, posted emergency guidelines yesterday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack. If Kim Jong Un said he would hit Anchorage, would he say, "Go ahead hit Anchorage and see what happens?"
Japan, anxious its ballistic missile defences could be overwhelmed by swarm attacks or circumvented by warheads launched on lofted trajectories, is likely to acquire a ground-based version of the Aegis missile defence system. No one at Japan's defence ministry was available to comment on Saturday. "We are with you a thousand percent".
"Both assured me that the people of Guam are safe", Calvo wrote on Facebook. If carried out, it would be the North's most provocative missile launch to date.
Trump said he was considering additional sanctions on North Korea, adding these would be "very strong".
United States officials have said new U.S. steps that would target Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang are in the works, but these have appeared to be put on hold to give Beijing time to show it is serious about enforcing new UN sanctions.
The possibility of escalation is made even more acute by the lack of any means of official communication across the Demilitarized Zone, though there has been no easing of the barrage of inflammatory comments in the USA and the North since new sanctions against North Korea were announced last week.
The North then came out with a threat to lob four intermediate-range "Hwasong-12" missiles near Guam, a tiny US territory some 2,000 miles from the North's capital, Pyongyang. It is about 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southeast of North Korea, much closer than it is to any of the United States.
