NewsTracker Answers for week of Aug. 14, 2017

Q: North Korea warned that the United States would “pay a price” over new UN sanctions and threatened to fire missiles in the vicinity of the U.S. island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. In turn, President Donald Trump threatened North Korea with "fire and fury." North Korea is about 2,100 miles northeast of Guam. Where is North Korea on this map?

Circle the area on this map

Q: There are about 160,000 Americans live on Guam which hosts U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guards bases. The island became a U.S. territory in 1898 after a war with which nation?

A. Germany

B. Japan

C. Russia

D. Spain

D. Guam was just one of the islands the United States gained in the 10-week Spanish-American War. It also gained Puerto Rico and the Philippines and great influence over a newly independent Cuba. The Philippines gained its independence after World War II. During that war, both Guam and the Philippines were captured and occupied by Japan and later recaptured by the United States.

Q: What U.S. ally lies between North Korea and Guam?

A. China

B. Japan

C. Philippines

D. Australia

B. Japan’s defense minister warned that his nation could shoot down any North Korean missiles fired at Guam.

Q: President Trump’s threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea came on the eve of the 72nd anniversary of the last time a nuclear weapon was used in war. What city was the target of that nuclear attack?

A. Fukushima

B. Kyoto

C. Nagasaki

D. Tokyo

C. On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. The bombing came three days after the world’s first nuclear attack devastated the city of Hiroshima. Within the first two to four months following the bombings, the acute effects of the atomic bombings had killed 90,000–146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000–80,000 in Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days after the Nagasaki bombing.

Q: In the event of a conflict with the United States, it is expected that North Korean artillery would quickly devastate the capital city of U.S. ally South Korea. What is the capital of South Korea?

A. Seoul

B. Pyongyang

C. Hanoi

D. Beijing

A. Metropolitan Seoul houses about half of South Korea’s 51 million people and is well within the range of 15,000 North Korean cannons and rocket launchers on the border just 35 miles away from the city.