The United States is bolstering the countrys missile defense after a series of explicit nuclear threats from North Korea. The Pentagon will announce Monday that it is deploying fourteen additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California.

Fox News reports that the additional interceptors on the West Coast would bring the total number of interceptors to forty-four, a number which was part of the ballistic missile defense plan of the Bush administration.

James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, last week offered a window into the administrations thinking when, in a speech to the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. shortly after North Korea publicly threatened a preemptive nuclear strike on the United States. He said: North Koreas shrill public pronouncements underscore the need for the U.S. to continue to take prudent steps to defeat any future North Korean ICBM.

A couple of days later, announcing the completion of Missile Field Number One at Fort Greely, Alaska, Miller said, we have the ability to swiftly deploy up to 14 additional ground-based interceptors if needed.

The other interceptors are deployed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Source: To read the article in full see Homeland Security News Wire, http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130315-u-s-to-bolster-missile-defense-to-meet-north-korean-threat