Home Depot co-founder and Trump supporter Ken Langone warns that tension with North Korea is “the single greatest threat since World War II.”
North Korea's test of an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this week is a "very ominous" and "extremely dangerous situation" for the world, Langone told CNBC on Thursday.
U.S. officials confirmed that North Korea launched its first successful intercontinental ballistic missile test this week, just days before President Donald Trump was scheduled to travel to Europe for the G-20 summit in Germany, Bloomberg reported.
The test, which follows several missile launches in recent months, has drawn the rebuke of several world leaders and increased pressure on Trump to take action to back up his rhetoric against the regime of Kim Jong Un.
Trump has previously said that “the era of strategic patience with the North Korea regime has failed’’ and “is over.”
Trump has said all options including military force are available against Pyongyang, though its neighbors warn a strike could be disastrous for North Asia. South Korea’s new government favors talks to bring Kim to heel, also putting it potentially at odds with Trump’s administration.
Langone, a longtime Republican supporter and co-founder of Home Depot, warned CNBC that Trump must soon resolve the conflict with North Korea.
"This is the trigger, OK? This could be the trigger of a calamity in the world," Langone said. "We're looking at the single greatest threat since World War II," he said.
Langone said Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who are set to meet at the G-20 on Friday, should talk about North Korea's leader and "nothing else" instead of "all this other crap."
"This is an extremely dangerous situation," Langone said. "We better figure out what we better do with this guy," Langone said.
"We'll survive as a society and as a nation. He'll hit us once. We'll obliterate him. But look at what happens to the world when you do that," Langone said.
For his part, Trump said Thursday that he is contemplating some "pretty severe things" to retaliate against North Korea after it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile this week that brings it closer to being able to hit the U.S. mainland.
“I have some pretty severe things we’re thinking about," Trump said at a news conference in Warsaw. "Doesn’t mean we’re going to do them. I don’t draw red lines."
"It’s a shame they’re behaving this way and they’re behaving in a very dangerous manner, and something will have to be done about it," Trump said, Bloomberg reported.
Trump, who spoke alongside Polish President Andrzej Duda, offered no details about what he is considering and did not answer a question directly about whether is contemplating the use of military force. Earlier in the news conference, he said he is calling on all nations to "publicly demonstrate to North Korea that there are consequences for their very, very bad behavior."
To be sure, North Korea's firing of a long-range missile that could possibly reach Alaska is a "continuation of North Korea flaunting the world, and China and Russia using this to the disadvantage of the United States," former Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg told Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"This is leading to a conflict," Nunberg told Newsmax TV host J.D. Hayworth. "There is going to be some kind of conflict.
"Hopefully, the confrontation and the conflict can be quick – but, look, I think at the end of the day you have to look at South Korea.
"South Korea is prepared to fight North Korea on this," he said. "Japan is prepared."
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Nunberg noted the 1953 armistice that was signed at the end of the Korean War that established the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.
No final agreement on peace has been reached between the nations, however.
"We're basically still at war with North Korea," he told Hayworth. "We only signed an armistice with them and that is we're going to protect South Korea.
"We're only on a standstill with them. We're on an armistice, and that's the way these people live."
North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear-tipped warhead capable of reaching the U.S. is likely to be a significant topic during the G-20. Trump is scheduled to have bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korean President Moon Jae-In and Putin. Each of those leaders have spoken out against North Korea’s provocations, and Trump has leaned on China in particular to rein in the rogue regime but acknowledged recently that it’s not working.
(Newsmax wires services contributed to this report).
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