North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un’s announcement that the rogue nation won’t carry out nuclear testing and will shutter its atomic test site “is not much better” than continued testing, according to GOP Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
In an interview aired Sunday on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Cotton, who is a member of the Senate’s intelligence and armed services committee, said the decision is “easily reversible.”
“I think this announcement on Friday is better than continued testing but it's not much better than that,” he declared, adding: “They made no announcement about their medium or short range ballistic missiles that threaten hundreds of thousands of Americans in Korea and Japan just like it threatens our allies there.
“But I do think they show that the president has put Kim Jong Un on the wrong foot for the first time. North Korea has been on the back foot for a long time.”
Cotton also hailed CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who has been nominated by President Donald Trump for secretary of state, is a better choice than his predecessors.
“The difference Mike Pompeo and a lot of those Democrats or the previous secretaries of state is that Mike Pompeo recognizes that the credible threat of military force is essential to getting diplomatic solutions,” Cotton said.
“The Democrats especially on the Foreign Relations Committee are really engaged in shameful political behavior,” he added. “Fifteen of them voted for Mike Pompeo last year to be the director of the CIA.”
“Most of these Democrats don't have a problem with Mike Pompeo — they are still struggling to get over the election of Donald Trump in 2016,” said. “They're afraid of scaring the Move On crowd. It's shameful behavior. “
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