President Donald Trump's new stronger rhetoric and tougher sanctions against North Korea "is the kind of serious action that's going to be required," Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson told Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"He has to understand, Kim Jong Un, that if he attacks, his country will be destroyed — and he really wants to maintain power," the Wisconsin Republican told "Newsmax Now" host Bill Tucker.
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"He's just never taken anybody seriously because – on a bipartisan basis – nobody's really ratcheted up the pressure to this point.
"He's really played us like a Stradivarius, so this is the kind of serious action that's going to be required," Johnson said. "We should have been taking it literally decades ago, but we haven't.
"So, he now has nuclear power, well on his way to developing the delivery capability with an ICBM — and that's just simply unacceptable.
"This is high-stakes poker here, to say the least."
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