(Washington, DC) Yesterday, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the United States Pacific Command, testified before the House Armed Services Committee that the current missile defense system for the United States may not be robust enough to defend against a potential North Korean attack.
The admiral’s testimony came shortly before the United States Senate was set to receive a White House briefing on North Korea. Before the session began with the Armed Services Committee, a deployment of an anti-missile defense system to South Korea resulted in protests from South Korean citizens and the Chinese government.
Admiral Harris urged Congress to take North Korea’s growing missile strike capabilities more seriously and called for an increase in strength of missile defenses in Hawaii. Admiral Harris told lawmakers that he didn’t “share your confidence that North Korea is not going to attack either South Korea, Japan, or the United States.”
The military of North Korea is not currently evaluated as having missile technology that would allow Pyongyang to order an attack on US soil, but there are a growing number of experts who predict that this may become a reality by 2020. North Korea continues to increase its nuclear capabilities, which is particularly alarming given their promise to strike the US and all of her allies if they perceive an attack on their territories.
