Guam, Okinawa to suffer damages in case of war: NK warns

If North Korea was ever invaded, all American bases in South Korea and surrounding areas, including Okinawa and Guam in the Pacific, would suffer huge damage, said a recent issue of ``Youth Vanguard,`` a newspaper put out by North Korea`s Kim Il-Sung Youth League.

In an article headed ``No One Can Provoke Us`` in its Feb. 21 issue, the North Korean government mouthpiece warned, ``If another war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, all U.S. military bases in South Korea and in the environs of the Korean Peninsula, including those in Okinawa and Guam, would be blown up into the sky.``

In a similar commentary titled ``The United States Must Rethink Hard`` that was published in the Mar. 12 issue of the Rodong Shinmun, organ of the North Korean Workers Party, Washington was blasted for ``"stepping up its machinations to crush this Republic to death by continuing to characterize North Korea as a state that supports terrorism.``

Ha Tae-Won scooop@donga.com