The United States is ready to defend itself and its allies against North Korean nuclear weapons, outgoing Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Sunday on NBC’s « Meet the Press. »
« We’ve deployed missile defenses in South Korea, Japan, Guam and, of course, we have 28,500 troops there today, » he said. « North Korea’s slogan is, ‘fight tonight.’ We’re ready to defend the Korean peninsula and defend our friends and interests there. »
Carter said the U. S. would shoot down an intermediate range ballistic missile if it threatened the U.