Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said President Donald Trump had elevated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "world stage player" in his statements over their nuclear weapons program, The Hill reported Saturday.
"I think that the president unfortunately has elevated Kim Jong Un now," McCaskill said at a town hall meeting Friday, the Daily Journal Online reported. "What he wants is to be seen as a world stage player, and now we've kind of made him one."
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCaskill said she was confident in U.S. missile defense systems protecting Guam and America's west coast, though she remained worried about Trump's capabilities in international negotiations.
North Korea announced on Wednesday a plan to attack the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam would be complete by mid-August.
"I know people say the rhetoric wasn't stopping the advancement of their weapons, but we're tracking it and we have the technology to intercept," McCaskill said.
"I've traveled and (seen) the anti-ballistic missiles that we have in Alaska, South Korea, Guam as part of my service on the Armed Services Committee," she added. "I feel very comfortable with the technology that we have."
On Friday, Trump changed the tone of some of his recent bombastic comments and worked to sooth tensions with North Korea.
"Hopefully it will all work out," Trump said Friday. "Nobody loves a peaceful solution more than President Trump, that I can tell you… But we will see what happens. We think that lots of good things could happen, and we could also have a bad solution."
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