North Korea: We Can Hit US Mainland

After the US this week gave South Korea permission to extend the range of its missiles, everyone expected North Korea to respond in some fashion. It didn't disappoint: Pyongyang today declared that its missiles could hit not only the "puppet forces" of the South but the US mainland as well, reports Reuters. The North's claims are impossible to verify, and the last big test of a long-range missile fizzled in April, notes the BBC.

• North's statement: "We do not hide (the fact) that the revolutionary armed forces ... including the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the US imperialist aggression forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam, and the US mainland."
• State Department's comeback: "Certainly rather than bragging about its missile capability, they ought to be feeding their own people."