Tensions continued Wednesday when North Korea announced it had authorized the use of nuclear weapons against U.S. targets. The White House continued to bolster its military posture toward North Korea, meanwhile, by announcing plans to deploy an advanced missile defense system to Guam, two years ahead of schedule. In Washington, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said North Korea marks a “real and clear danger.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: “They have nuclear capacity now. They have missile delivery capacity now. And so, as they have ratcheted up their bellicose, dangerous rhetoric and some of the actions they’ve taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan, and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States.”