Republican senator says Kim Jong Un ‘will not denuclearize,’ calls peaceful gestures ‘a show’

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he is convinced that North Korea will not give up its nuclear program and that its release of U.S. prisoners and other gestures are “a show.”

Rubio told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday that the U.S. will have to make a decision on whether it can live with North Korea’s having nuclear weapons that could put America at risk.

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“Ultimately I remain convinced that [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] does not want to denuclearize; he will not denuclearize, but he wants to give off this perception that he’s this open leader, that he’s peaceful, that he’s reasonable,” the Florida senator told Raddatz.

He said recent peaceful gestures by Kim Jong Un such as releasing three Americans detained in North Korea and blowing up a site that had been used for nuclear testing were “a show.”

“It’s all a show,” Rubio said. Kim “released three Americans that were innocently there, blew up a facility that was probably already damaged … Here’s the bigger point, the facility he blew up was a testing site. He can test [weapons] anywhere.”

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Raddatz asked the Florida senator about a recent tweet about the North Korean leader, saying that US “options to deal with him are narrowing.”

Rubio responded, “If you don’t think you’re ever going to be able to reach a deal where he gives up his missiles and gives up his nukes then you’re going to have to make a decision, which is where we’ve been the whole time, and that is, ‘Are you prepared to live in a world where someone like him possesses not just nuclear weapons, but the ability to hit the mainland of the United States?’ And, if you’re not, then you’re going to have to do something to go after them at some point.”