Defense Secretary Mark Esper insisted Thursday that U.S. forces are indeed ready to "fight tonight," after former National Security Adviser John Bolton questioned whether the military is ready to stand up against a threat from North Korea.
"We have a full array of forces," Esper told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "They are ready. They are air and naval, Marine, Army forces. We have our South Korean partners with us, and we have a broader set of allies and partners out there as well. I am confident in the readiness of our forces to deter North Korean bad behavior."
Bolton Wednesday wrote in a tweet that the United States should restore all military exercises with South Korea and that congressional hearings should be conducted concerning "whether U.S. troops are truly ready to 'fight tonight'" after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's threats.
"We think the best path forward with regard to North Korea is a political agreement that denuclearizes the peninsula," Esper said Thursday. "We are on that path, we are going to remain on that path, and we obviously will urge Kim Jong Un and his leadership team to sit back down at the negotiating table to do that."
Meanwhile, "we remain ready to 'fight tonight' as need be, but as importantly, enable our diplomats to get an agreement done," said Esper. "We would urge restraint by Kim Jong Un, and at the same time we work closely with our partners in South Korea to ensure the readiness of our forces on the Korean peninsula."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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