“Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the United States was ‘prepared to deal with any eventuality’ from North Korea and warned that danger from Pyongyang was on the rise. ‘We will unequivocally defend — we are unequivocally committed — to that alliance with South Korea as well as our other allies in that region of the world,’ Hagel told reporters. ‘We will be prepared…to deal with any eventuality,’ Hagel said after the United States flew two nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers on a mission over South Korea. ‘We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we’ll respond to that,’ Hagel said.”
