US cancels key part of European missile defense project

The United Stated is abandoning a key part of its Eastern European missile defense project due to development problems and funding, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has announced. The focus, he said, will be shifted to perceived threats from North Korea, Russia Today reports on Saturday.

Interceptors in Poland and Romania, the deployment of which had been the source of heavy criticism from Moscow, will be scrapped.

Hagel told the press on Friday that the decision was made as part of an overall restructuring of the country's missile defense plans, with an eye to stopping perceived threats from Iran and North Korea.

Washington claims that its decision was prompted by a need to address North Korea's faster-than-anticipated progress in nuclear weapons development. The changes to the program will free up the money to do so, Hagel said.