Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) on Sunday said economic sanctions are of limited use as a deterrent to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests.
“I think, given where they are, we see the limits of economic sanctions, obviously, on North Korea,” Flake said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He said North Korea seems “intent on moving forward.”
“What we’ve been doing over the years has certainly not slowed the advance of their nuclear program. But I don’t think that harsh rhetoric does either,” Flake said.
President Donald Trump on Sunday condemned North Korea for conducting what the nation’s state-run media claimed was the loading of a hydrogen bomb into a new intercontinental ballistic missile.
Trump called it “a major Nuclear Test,” and called North Korea “a rogue nation” and “very hostile and dangerous to the United States.”
Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said he would “draft a sanctions package” on North Korea to send to Trump “for his strong consideration.”
“Certainly sanctions are not arresting that development either, so just about nothing we’ve done so far has helped slow it down,” Flake said. “I think that they are moving.”
"We see the limits of economic sanctions," Sen. Jeff Flake says after North Korea tests a hydrogen bomb https://t.co/QXKhN0o9JP
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 3, 2017
