White House: US Can Stop North Korean Missile Attack

The United States can stop a North Korean nuclear missile strike, the White House said on Thursday.

“The United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, USA Today reports.

Carney’s statement followed a unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council to impose new sanctions against North Korea, which carried out a third nuclear test on Feb. 12.
Pyongyang threatened a nuclear strike against the United States, USA Today reported.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that North Korea was prepared to “exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors,” and that Washington was “set to light a fuse for a nuclear war.”

Carney said North Korea “will achieve nothing by threats or provocations,” USA Today reports.