The United States must act to stop North Korea's nuclear threat, and "it's all going to be ugly," Jed Babbin, deputy undersecretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush, told Newsmax TV.
"Right now North Korea is a proximate and immediate threat," Babbin told host Steve Malzberg on Monday's "America Talks Live." "They are doing their best to develop the capability to launch missiles at the United States, and they're on their way to doing that."
Babbin said the Obama administration will have to "bite the bullet," so that North Korea will "just get very unlucky."
That means stepped-up cyberattacks.
See Steve Malzberg on Newsmax TV: Tune in beginning at 12 PM EDT to "America Talks Live" — on FiOS 115/615, YouTube Livestream, Newsmax TV App from any smartphone, NewsmaxTV.com, Roku, Amazon Fire — More Systems Here
"They should have a lot more accidents. Things should blow up more on their launch pads. Their nuclear tests might be somehow fouled up. Those are things that we can do … by cyberattacks, by attacks with weapons that are not observable," Babbin said.
"There's a lot of things that we can do and at this point [Secretary of State Rex] Tillerson said it right when he said that the times for strategic patience is over. We got to do something and it's all going to be ugly."
Earlier this month, North Korea claimed it had tested a new high-thrust rocket engine, and leader Kim Jong Un boasted the "whole world will soon witness what eventful significance the great victory won today carries."
North Korea has tested several missiles over the last year.
Babbin is author of "The BDS War Against Israel: The Orwellian Campaign to Destroy Israel Through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement," co-written with Herbert London and published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.