US to beef up missile defence after North Korea's provocative nuclear threats

The Pentagon is beefing up America’s missile defense in the wake of provocative nuclear threats from North Korea.

Pentagon is also all set to deploy 14 additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California, congressional and US officials have said.

According to Fox News, the extra interceptors on the West Coast, designed to counter attacks from an intercontinental ballistic missile, would bring the total number of interceptors to 44, a plan originally proposed by the Bush administration.

President Barack Obama stopped the deployment of the additional interceptors when he took office in 2009, leaving the total number at 30.

According to the report, a senior Pentagon official hinted at the decision last week in a speech to the Atlantic Council in Washington just days after Pyongyang threatened a ‘pre-emptive’ nuclear strike on the United States.

Congressional sources have said it will cost at least 205 million dollars to bring that missile field up to speed, more than it would have cost four years ago.

An Obama administration official said that the increase in interceptors is a logical response to an evolving threat from North Korea, the report added.