The latest actions by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are forcing the U.S. and its allies to consider a more combative strategy, retired Gen. Wesley Clark said Wednesday on CNBC, including going after test-launch pads and naval assets.
“We’re walking up to that and actually Kim is forcing us to walk up to considerations of these options,” said Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander.
“We have to consider what we can do in the non-lethal category as well,” he said in an interview on “Squawk Box.” “There’s been a lot of talk about cyber. … We know we can shut down a lot of the North Korea communications. We can shut down electric power. We can shut down their early warning defense networks.”
Also Wednesday on “Squawk Box” was Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He said North Korea’s latest missile test shows a lack of restraint.
The United Nations Security Council condemned North Korea’s “outrageous” firing of a ballistic missile over Japan on Tuesday and demanded the isolated country halt its weapons program but held back on any threat of new sanctions.
In response to North Korea’s actions, President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday that the “world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear” and “all options are on the table” to answer North Korea.
On Wednesday morning, Trump indicated that talking may not be the answer to North Korea.
Clark said Wednesday that the U.S. has likely already taken some actions against North Korea that the public isn’t aware of, and the public likely doesn’t want to know. The U.S. is in a “real cat and mouse game” with North Korea, Clark said.
“Privately, we should be considering what is it that is really intolerable for us,” he added. “Is it the firing of missiles at Guam or in the direction of Guam? And, if so, are we going to permit that to happen?”