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North Korea said it is 'carefully examining' a plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam with missiles, just hours after President Donald Trump told the country that any threat to the U.S. would be met with 'fire and fury.' 

A spokesman for the Korean People's Army, in a statement carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency, said Wednesday the strike plan will be 'put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment' once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision.

Guam, which is roughly 2,128 miles from North Korea, is home to both Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam housing thousands of American service members and their families. 

Roughly 28 percent of the island is occupied by the U.S. military. The base houses bomber assurance and deterrence missions, including six B-52s which the air force says provide 'strategic global strike capability [to] deter potential adversaries and provide reassurance to allies' and that they are ready to go.

In another statement citing a different military spokesman, North Korea also said it could carry out a pre-emptive operation if the U.S. showed signs of provocation.

Earlier Pyongyang said it was ready to give Washington a 'severe lesson' with its strategic nuclear force in response to any U.S. military action.

The statement from the North comes after Trump told the country's leader Tuesday that additional threats of violence against the U.S. 'will be met with fire and the fury like the world has never seen.'

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North Korea said it is 'carefully examining' a plan to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam with missiles. The strike plan will be 'put into practice in a multi-current and consecutive way any moment' once leader Kim Jong Un (file above) makes a decision

This comes hours after President Donald Trump (above on Tuesday) delivered his fiercest warning yet to North Korea Tuesday afternoon

Guam, which is known as the 'Tip of the Spear', is home to thousands of American service members and their families at both Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam

'He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said they will be met with the fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,' Trump added in remarks at the top of an unrelated meeting.

He stopped just short of a firm promise to declare war on Kim's government if the dictatorship continues to talk about 'physical action' to the U.S.

'North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,' Trump cautioned after a reporter asked him about the nuclear standoff.

Trump told the world Tuesday morning that it must be vigilant against North Korea in the face of new threats from the country's young dictator.

Kim had warned the United States that it would pay 'pay dearly' for the United Nations sanctions regime it successfully imposed over the weekend and hinted at military action as tensions continued to escalate.

'Physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength,' North Korea's state-run news agency said Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Kim was lashing out at a U.S. push to drain him of the hard currency he needs to develop his nuclear program that Russia and China reluctantly signed on to last weekend. 

The sanctions put a hard stop to a third of North Korea's export revenue - a deafening blow to the country's economy.

Trump celebrated the universal participation of Security Council countries in the sanctions with a tweet this morning that said, 'After many years of failure,countries are coming together to finally address the dangers posed by North Korea. We must be tough & decisive!' 

A Washington Post report on Tuesday suggested that North Korea had invented a miniaturized warhead that it has the capability of attaching to the intercontinental ballistic missiles its been testing.

Trump told the country's leader that additional threats of violence against the U.S. 'will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen'

Comments from Trump came during a briefing on the opioid crisis on Tuesday at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster

The development brings the country dangerously close to its goal of creating of a nuclear weapon that can hit targets in the U.S. 

Alaska, Hawaii and California would be at an especially high risk if Kim's scientists finish the weapons and North Korea decides to use them.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said on Tuesday that he is seriously worried about a possible North Korean missile strike on his state as well as the rest of the United States.

'There's concern, but there's also pride,' Sullivan said on Fox News's 'The Story' Tuesday. 'Alaska is the cornerstone of our nation's missile defense.'

He added that Alaska's missile defense battalion 'is literally protecting the country.'  

'The Alaska guard unit there calls themselves the 300, protecting the 300 million,' Sullivan said. 'So that's what they're doing now, protecting us.'

According to the report, US officials estimate that Kim now has 60 nuclear weapons in his possession. 

By comparison, the US is estimated to have more than 6,800 in its stockpile, and Russia is thought to have 7,000.

Shortly after Trump's morning message, United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared on Fox & Friends to deliver tough talk to North Korea and take a victory lap on sanctions.

'The United States will respond accordingly, and I think the international community will respond accordingly,' she said of the dangerous actions that Kim could take in response to the punishing actions.

A Washington Post report earlier in the day on Tuesday suggested that North Korea had invented a miniaturized warhead that it has the capability of attaching to the intercontinental ballistic missiles its been testing.

Trump stopped just short of a firm promise to declare war on Kim's government if the dictatorship continues to talk about 'physical action' to the U.S. during the meeting in New Jersey with Kellyanne Conway (left), HHS Secretary Tom Price, (second left), Melania Trump (second right) and the National Drug Control Policy Center's Richard Baum (right)

Former President Barack Obama's aide Dan Pfeiffer went after Trump's warning to North Korea on Tuesday. Pfeiffer tweeted, 'Don't gloss over the fact that Trump threatened what can only be interpreted as a nuclear attack on North Korea if Kim Jong Un taunts him.'

It's up to North Korean leader to decide whether his response is, 'OK the international community is telling me to stop or he is going to have, you know, a temper tantrum,' she'd said.

Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy worried that Kim is rejecting the international mandate. 'It sounds like, we are getting closer to a shootin' war,' he told Haley.

'But we don't run scared,' Haley asserted. 'This had to happen, we had to go after his hard currency, we had to stop it.' 

'How he responds? He's now going to have to think what's the end game? Is he really going to come after the United States knowing what the United States can do back? He's gotta make that calculation,' the high-ranking U.S. diplomat assessed.

Former President Barack Obama's aide Dan Pfeiffer went after Trump's warning to North Korea on Tuesday.  

Pfeiffer tweeted, 'Don't gloss over the fact that Trump threatened what can only be interpreted as a nuclear attack on North Korea if Kim Jong Un taunts him.'

On Monday, North Korea promised to 'teach the US a severe lesson' if it puts its military might to the test on the Korean Peninsula. 

'We will, under no circumstances, put the nukes and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table,' North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said, effectively declining to engage in talks about the nuclear program. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, 33, first warned that the United States would 'pay dearly' for the United Nations sanctions regime it successfully imposed over the weekend and hinted at 'physical action' as tensions continued to escalate

Shortly after the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared on Fox & Friends to deliver to more tough talk to North Korea

State-run KCNA news agency meanwhile claimed that North Korea 'will make the US pay dearly for all the heinous crimes it commits against the state and people of this country.'

KCNA cautioned the U.S. against 'believing that its land is safe across the ocean' in what it described as a 'stern warning to the US.'

Tuesday it slapped the U.S. again, saying in a statement that appeared in the New York Times: 'Packs of wolves are coming in attack to strangle a nation...They should be mindful that the D.P.R.K.'s strategic steps accompanied by physical action will be taken mercilessly with the mobilization of all its national strength.'

Kim is fuming over a United Nations Security Council resolution that will cut a billion out of his $3 billion economy annually. The resolution bans North Korea exports of coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood and blocks off other cash-rich avenues, including joint ventures. 

Naval Base Guam (file above) is located on the west side of the island. There is an estimated 6,300 active duty Navy members and 6,900 family members living on Guam as well as a significant population of retired military personnel

The U.S. pushed the resolution through the Security Council on Saturday with the aid of Russia and China, North Korea's largest trading partner. 

'Yes, China and Russia were not the easiest, but at the end of the day they came through, and that's all that matters,' Haley said this morning on Fox & Friends of the vote to put heavy penalties on North Korea over its continued nuclear tests.

China favors deconfliction with North Korea and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but not the displacement of Kim. Beijing is concerned that a coup would put the country's stockpile of weapons in nefarious hands. 

It joined the U.S. and 13 other nations that sit on the Security Council in approving new sanctions on North Korea, a nation with whom it shares a border, after Washington threatened to restrict access to its financial institutions last week.

North Korea's ramped up missile tests since Trump took office has the United States pursuing aggressive measures in the region, including Chinese sanctions.

Military action remains on the table, as well, sparking fears internationally that the conflict will result in war.

The Trump administration's attempts to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and missile ambitions have so far gained little traction.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has warned of an 'effective and overwhelming' response against North Korea if it chose to use nuclear weapons but has said any military solution would be 'tragic on an unbelievable scale.'

The United States has 28,500 troops in South Korea to guard against the North Korean threat. Japan hosts around 54,000 U.S. military personnel, the U.S. Department of Defense says, and tens of thousands of Americans work in both countries.

Seoul is home to a population of roughly 10 million, within range of massed pre-targeted North Korean rockets and artillery, which would be impossible to destroy in a first U.S. strike.

A rising number of Republicans - 48 percent - want Trump to go that route. That's a jump from 37 percent in an April CBS News poll.

A majority of Americans are fearful that Trump is not equipped to go to battle with Kim, though. In the CBS survey, 61 percent of voters expressed doubts.

Most do not think North Korea will actually try to strike the U.S. with one of the intercontinental ballistic missiles it's been testing, however. 

Nearly seven in 10 Americans think Kim is using the nuclear program to gain power and influence.