Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday that the Trump administration “stood up to Kim Jong Un” and blamed the Biden administration for North Korea’s latest missile test.
“The fact that for the first time in more than four years, Kim Jong Un fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that went into space and landed in the sea of Japan is a great concern,” Pence said in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Friday.
“South Korea responded strongly with five different short-range missile launches, but it’s important to remember this stopped happening under the Trump-Pence administration, because we stood up to Kim Jong Un. We brought a maximum pressure campaign on him.”
Pence said that the Biden administration was “begging” Iran to reenter the Iran nuclear deal, which he believes North Korea has interpreted as capitulation.
“I honestly believe that as you see the Biden administration, you know, literally begging Iran to reenter the Iran nuclear deal. I think that has sent a message of capitulation that they are hearing in North Korea, and so they’re back to their old cycle of provocation,” Pence said.
“Again, I’ve said many times, you know, peace comes through strength, but weakness arouses evil.”
On Thursday, North Korea tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile test since 2017, with state TV broadcasting dramatic footage of the launch and Kim with other officials.
Though former President Trump held two formal summits with the North Korean leader, it did not culminate in a denuclearization deal.
Trump also notably withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal — which exchanged an easing of sanctions for Iran limiting its nuclear program — and Iran later began violating the terms of the deal.
The development comes as 12 rounds of missile tests have been conducted by North Korea this year alone, according to The Associated Press, the latest of which comes amid a raging Russian invasion in Ukraine now in its second month.