Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered a blustery statement on North Korea Friday.
“I am not naive. I understand that if the past is an indication of the future, North Korea will be all talk and no action… However, I do believe that North Korea now believes President Trump will use military force if he has to,” Graham said.
On Thursday the White House announced that President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un would meet for the first time. The historic gathering would represent the first time that an American president has met with North Korean leadership.
“A word of warning to North Korean President Kim Jong Un — the worst possible thing you can do is meet with President Trump in person and try to play him,” Graham continued.
“If you do that, it will be the end of you — and your regime.”
Graham has been focused on North Korea for a long time. Last year he suggested that U.S. servicemen and women stationed in South Korea should leave. The situation, he argued, has simply become too dangerous.
It’s not clear that the meeting will actually happen. On Friday, the White House clarified that President Trump wouldn’t actually agree to meet until North Korea made a few concessions.
If Trump and Kim do hold discussions, Graham isn’t the only who thinks they might go badly.
“The thing that’s striking here is that there is no letter from Kim. This was an oral message conveyed by North Koreans to the South Koreans,” said Eric Edelman, former undersecretary of defense for policy.
“What they actually said, what they heard him say, and then what they transmitted to Trump could be two or three different things, and it’s not like we haven’t had that in the past… There can be elements of wishful thinking here and so I think people really need to be approaching this with a great deal of caution.”
My statement on North Korea. pic.twitter.com/tOpa3ewrtl
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 9, 2018
(Source: New York Post)