Engagement by questioning trade deals and security alliances while at the same time stoking tension with north korea. there have also been fairly fundamental shifts in power just in the last month alone. here in japan, shinzo abe newly re-elected is likely to push to change the pacifist constitution to remilitarize japan. seoul and beijing normalized relations again after a long dispute over the u.s. missile defense system. that happened just last week and then of course, there s the rise of xi jinping to almost unprecedented power in china after the latest party congress. this is a region that is looking for cues or for signs from the u.s. on policy but not necessarily expecting to find them on this trip. this is going to be a long trip. it s 12 days. spanning five countries and there are two things that could disrupt it. first a misstep or gaffe by president trump who is in a part of the world that is bound by
Pyongyang s state-run news agency reporting, quote, trump is driving the situation on the korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war. in guam the target of north korea s latest threat, people woke up to a grim newspaper headline, 14 minutes, that s how long it would take a north korean missile to reach the u.s. territory. if it managed to get past u.s. missile defenses, guam now warning its citizens. the u.s. bombers on guam were seen preparing for action. a constant state of alert. for forces whose motto is ready to fight. obviously i can t tell you what they re doing or where they re going but we are training every day all the time, just so we re ready. we re always prepared to prevail and fight tonight. reporter: south korea is calling on its military to maintain full readiness and japan is deploying this u.s. missile defense system. patriot pac 3 to four different
Missiles. now, how realistic is it? well, the north koreans do have missiles that could strike guam. they have some challenges in being able to have the real capacity to target that far away with precision. some 1800 miles perhaps, but nobody really wants to take that bet, do they? you know? so guam does have a u.s. missile defense system on the island but they re about 160,000 americans there, two u.s. military bases and here s the real problem tonight. this is the direct challenge to what president trump said. he said another threat they will be met by fire and fury. they made the threat. now, what happens, anderson? before we move on, it is not clear because what you just said it was several hours after the president made those remarks that the north koreans made those remarks. is it just several hours later it was reported? are you saying we don t know for a fact this comment was made
Defense capabilities against this weapon, depending on how it is delivered. there s got to be significant investment in missile defense. having said that, we will never have 100% reliability in shooting a missile down once it is fired. there will always be that threat and this is a very serious situation we find ourselves in now. jon: melissa: nothing reg about that, questions about just how reliable the u.s. missile defense system really is. joining me now to talk about it, former deputy assistant to the secretary of defense for homeland defense, responsible for overseeing policy involving domains. to the right guy to have on. how ready are we to defend against an attack like this?
Enough, and three days later the second atomic bomb fell on nagasaki. that is not where we are tonight. the question is, though, did we take a step closer today? we start off with barbara starr tonight at the pentagon. so what more are you learning about this threat against guam? reporter: well, what we know is the north korean state news agency issued this statement earlier today. it appears to have come maybe, we re not positive, after president trump spoke. but the north korean agencies saying they re examining their operational plan to strike areas around guam using ballistic missiles. now, how realistic is it? the north koreans do have missiles that could theoretically strike guam. but they have some challenges in being able to have the real capacity to target that far away with precision. some 1800 miles perhaps, but nobody wants to take that bet, do they? guam does have a u.s. missile