The United States is preparing to send an advanced missile-defense system to Asia to defend U.S. military bases in the Pacific, the Wall Street Journal reports:
A senior administration official said the U.S. will deploy the system, known as a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery, or THAAD, to Guam to protect against short- and medium-range missiles from North Korea.
Top defense officials approved the deployment, and the Pentagon was to announce it Wednesday afternoon.
The Pentagon originally had planned to deploy the first of the batteries in 2015, but escalating threats from both North Korea and Iran have forced the Defense Department to rethink those plans, officials said.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that a second U.S. guided-missile destroyer has been deployed to the Pacific in relation to escalating tensions with North Korea.
"We take those threats seriously," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday of North Korea in remarks at the National Defense University in Washington.
Describing North Korea's nuclear plans as a "growing threat," Hagel also said the United States is "working with the Chinese, others, to defuse that situation on the peninsula."
The Washington Free Beacon reported this week there has been a military buildup in China near the North Korean border.