Presidential hopeful Phil Gramm said Saturday he would support a pre-emptive attack on North Korea if that country could not be dissuaded from developing a nuclear program.
Campaigning in New Hampshire, Gramm, R-Texas, said he would prefer economic sanctions or political pressure to keep North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, but he said the safety of the more than 60,000 U.S. troops in the Seoul area would require that the United States try to stop communist aggression."North Korea is the only country in the world that is mean enough, in my opinion, to use nuclear weapons on its neighbors. It is the only country in the world irresponsible enough to sell nuclear weapons to terrorists," he said. "If we had to stop them with pre-emptive use of military force, I would support that."
The United States has been unable to reach agreement with North Korea on curbing its nuclear program.