Jones: North Korea threat is 'slow game' that will take more than one administration to solve
Former Marine bomb technician and Fox News contributor Johnny 'Joey' Jones addresses criticism of how the Trump administration is handling North Korea.
The U.S. military's decision to send four surveillance planes to the Korean Peninsula -- in reaction to North Korea’s cryptic reference to a possible “Christmas gift” for the U.S. -- marked an important push for leverage on behalf of President Trump, retired U.S. Marine Johnny “Joey” Jones said Thursday.
“I think that some of the criticisms of how the Trump administration is handling North Korea [are] a little bit short-sighted,” Jones, a double-amputee who was wounded in an explosion while fighting in Afghanistan, told “America’s Newsroom.”
Jones said that observers should understand that North Korean officials were aware their only leverage was the potential to nuclearize and act as a rogue nation around the world.
U.S. SENT 4 SPY PLANES TO KOREAN PENINSULA AFTER KIM’S ‘CHRISTMAS GIFT’ THREAT: REPORT
“President Trump fully understands that and that’s why he is negotiating in the way he does,” Jones said.
The action followed reports last week that North Korea had warned of a possible missile launch or nuclear test for late-December amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the U.S.
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The U.S. aircraft were detected by Aircraft Spots, an aviation tracking site, according to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The site reported that four U.S. planes flew their missions between Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day.
Trump stressed that the U.S. was prepared to deal with any kind of “gift” the North might send.
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Jones went on to say, “Without applying full maximum pressure with sanctions, they’ve got this moratorium on long-range missile tests, and so, President Trump understands he needs leverage as well. And, this is a slow game, something that will take more than one presidential administration to accomplish.”
Fox News' Dom Calicchio and Molly Line contributed to this report.