WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Erin Burnett last night to discuss threats from North Korea.
"I'm hopeful we'll see a repeat of the historic pattern of North Korea, where they are initially very belligerent, quite aggressive, and threaten attacks, and then when confronted, they stand down. This has gone off and on for many years. What makes the current situation with North Korea much more dangerous than previous confrontations with the West is that they have both nuclear weapons and ICBMs and they are closing in on the capability to marry the two and threatening to use them against the continental United States," said Senator Coons.
Full audio and video available here.
Excerpts from the interview below:
Senator Coons on the potential of a North Korean missile launch: I'm very concerned, Erin, given the heated rhetoric, the very belligerent rhetoric from Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea. I think it's appropriate we make preparations, that we defend our vital allies in South Korea and Japan, and we continue to bring online the missile defense system, the THAAD system, and we make it clear that any attack on American territory, any attack on American troops or on our close allies, will be met forcefully.
Senator Coons on recent statements from Kim Jong-un that seem to suggest he isn’t ready to strike yet: I'm hopeful we'll see a repeat of the historic pattern of North Korea, where they are initially very belligerent, quite aggressive, and threaten attacks, and then when confronted, they stand down. This has gone off and on for many years. What makes the current situation with North Korea much more dangerous than previous confrontations with the West is that they have both nuclear weapons and ICBMs and they are closing in on the capability to marry the two and threatening to use them against the continental United States. So this is a more dangerous situation than we've faced in the recent past.
Senator Coons on whether the US should continue its annual military drills with allies in the region: Yes, we should continue to conduct drills and exercises with our allies, South Korea and Japan. Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis had a joint editorial in The Wall Street Journal today where they very appropriately laid out that we have no intention of trying to overthrow the North Korean regime, of trying to invade or occupy North Korea, and that we are open to negotiations, and in those negotiations we may be willing to make compromises, but not in the face of threats and not in the face of ongoing missile tests, missile launches and nuclear detonations. So I felt like they took the right tone in that editorial.
Senator Coons on a potential missile test off the coast of Guam: I think if a missile is launched at Guam, and we have the capability, which I believe we do, we should knock down the missile. While a missile is in the air launched by North Korea and en-route to Guam, if we mistake the trajectory by a small amount, it could hit Guam rather than in the waters off of Guam. I think it is completely appropriate for us to use a defensive missile system to disable an incoming, aggressive North Korean ballistic missile, because we won't know whether it's a dummy missile or armed missile until it hits, and we won't know exactly where it's targeted- the waters off of Guam, or hitting Guam itself- until it comes down.
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