The plan, if implemented, would see four Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missiles fired into waters 30 to 40 kilometers (18 to 25 miles) off the coast of the US territory in response to escalating rhetoric from President Donald Trump.
It denounced Donald Trump’s warnings of ”fire and fury” and said the US leader was “bereft of reason”.
The US has warned the North its actions could mean the “end of its regime”.
North Korea must “cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and destruction of its people,” Mattis said in a written statement Wednesday.
The US Defence Secretary said Pyongyang would be “grossly overmatched” in any war against the US and its allies.
North Korea’s official news agency KCNA described Trump’s threat as a “load of nonsense”.
“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him,” it said of Trump, adding that it will keep closely watching the speech and behaviour of the US.
The North Korean army is developing a plan “in order to interdict the enemy forces on major military bases on Guam and to signal a crucial warning to the United States,” the KCNA report said.
Guam is home to about 163,000 people and a US military base that includes a submarine squadron, an airbase and a Coast Guard group.
“The Hwasong-12 rockets to be launched by the KPA (Korean People’s Army) will cross the sky above Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi Prefectures of Japan,” the report said, citing General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the KPA.
“They will fly 3,356.7 km for 1,065 seconds and hit the waters 30 to 40 km away from Guam.”
The Hwasong missiles are North Korea’s domestically produced medium and long-range weapons.
Earlier, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had sought to defuse tensions by saying there was no sign the threat level of North Korea had changed and that Americans should “sleep well at night.”
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