US positions destroyer off S. Korea coast

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/us-sends-destroyer-off-s-korea-coast/624164.html

The United States has positioned a destroyer off the coast of South Korea to defend against a possible missile strike, a US official said, as the South vowed a strong response to any provocation from the North.

The USS Fitzgerald was moved to the southwestern coast after taking part in military exercises, instead of returning to its home port in Japan, a US defence official told AFP Monday on condition of anonymity.

The deployment came as North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament formalised the country's status as a nuclear weapons state and appointed a sacked economic reformer for a fresh term as prime minister.

At a meeting with senior military officials on Monday, South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye said she took the near-daily stream of bellicose threats emanating from the North over the past month "very seriously".