US to add missile defense assets as N. Korea ups threats

Paul J. Richards / AFP - Getty Images

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to announce the deployment of 14 new missile interceptors at a briefing at 3 p.m. ET in Washington.

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will announce Friday that the U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors, probably in Alaska, defense officials told NBC News.

The officials didn't say specifically why the interceptors were being deployed, but the announcement comes as North Korea has been making bellicose threats to void the armistice that ended the Korean War and launch a nuclear attack on the U.S.

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The U.S. and South Korea began annual military drills this week despite the North Korean threats.

Hagel will make the announcement at a briefing scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, the officials said.

The U.S. is protected from some intercontinental ballistic missiles by a ground-based midcourse defense of interceptors in Alaska and ?California, which are designed to launch and stop incoming missiles directly.?

The new interceptors have been under construction at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are likely to be based there, the officials said.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is trying to prove his strength, causing experts to worry that Pyongyang's threats could get out of control. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

Even before the announcement, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the news, saying it was too little and too late.

"I applaud the Obama administration's decision, but it shouldn't have taken the predictable saber-rattling from North Korea to bring this about," Ayotte said in a statement Friday.?

Pointing to Iran's nuclear program, Ayotte called on the Obama administration to "move expeditiously to construct an East Coast missile defense site."

"Americans living in the Eastern United States should have the same level of missile defense protection as those in the West," she said.

Courtney Kube and Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:56 PM EDT

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/15/17327806-us-to-deploy-more-ground-based-missile-interceptors-as-north-korea-steps-up-threats?lite

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