In a television interview, US President Barack Obama has said the United States is fully prepared for a missile attack from North Korea on US territory. The interview will be broadcast later today by television station CBS.

His comments are a response to continuing reports that Pyongyang plans a missile attack on Hawaii. The president stressed that his words were meant as reassurance for the American people and not as a warning or a military answer.

On Friday, Defence Secretary Robert Gates stated that anti-missile weapons and a radar system had been shipped to the archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Tension between North Korea and the international community has increased recently.

The United Nations had imposed sanctions after North Korea carried out an underground nuclear test and a number of missile tests last month.

Photo: EPA