“If we have to go to war to stop this, we will,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Graham: U.S. 'headed to war if things don't change' with North Korea

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday warned that the U.S. could be hurtling toward a war with North Korea “if things don’t change” after the country’s latest weapons test.

Graham, an outspoken defense hawk, told CNN during an interview that he believes “every test puts them closer” to a military conflict.


“We're headed toward a war if things don’t change,” he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Pentagon officials announced Tuesday they believed that Pyongyang had launched a single intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, earlier in the day, its first in over two months. The move prompted President Donald Trump, while addressing reporters at the White House, to say the weapons test “is a situation that we will handle.”

Graham, a South Carolina Republican and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he hopes the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, will de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, vowing that Trump would not stand by as the country sought to develop its nuclear arsenal.

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“My hope is that North Korea will realize that he is serious about this,” Graham said. “The president is not going to allow North Korea to have a nuclear weapon in their hands that can hit America with an ICBM that can make it to the United States.”

But if swift military action is needed, Graham said, the U.S. will be ready to respond.

“If we have to go to war to stop this, we will,” he said. “And if there’s a war with North Korea, it’ll be because North Korea brought it on itself.”

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that South Korea has “fired some pinpoint missiles out into the water to make certain North Korea understands that they could be taken under fire by our ally.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson condemned the launch while urging U.S. allies to “continue strong economic and diplomatic measures” to dissuade Kim from pursuing further tests.

