Accepting Nuclear North Korea Tells Iran it’s OK, Warns Expert

There are too many experts, pundits and foreign officials comfortable with the idea that North Korea will inevitably secure nuclear capability, Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) former senior advisor on foreign relations said Thursday.

Anthony Ruggiero, now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, cautioned against the international community throwing its hands up and accepting that North Korea will never be denuclearized, especially for the message it would send to Iran.

“The message that sends to Iran is that in 10, 20 years, you can have your own nuclear weapons program, too, and this is the path,” Ruggiero, who regularly testifies before Congress, said at the Heritage Foundation. “North Korea is laying out the path. So I think we have to be careful. Who is looking at whom? Is it North Korea’s looking at Iran, or is it Iran looking at North Korea?”

Ruggiero was joined Thursday by two scholars from South Korea and a terrorism financing advisor from the Obama administration.

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