The senior senator from South Carolina issued the most dire warning yet that war with North Korea is more likely now than at any time since the 1950s after Pyongyang conducted its most recent ballistic missile test.

In the early morning hours Wednesday, the North Koreans launched what appears to be an upgraded version of a Hwasong-14 ICBM, which flew skyward some 2,800 miles — the highest yet of any missile the North has tested before. Experts calculate that the missile, if on a flat trajectory, could travel upwards of 13,000 miles — more than enough to strike Washington, D.C., and all of the United States.

In an interview with CNN, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Pyongyang it was playing with fire because President Donald J. Trump, given the option of taking on the regime of Kim Jong-un or putting Americans in danger, would choose war with North Korea without hesitation.

“If we have to go to war to stop this, we will,” Graham said Tuesday. “If there’s a war with North Korea it will be because North Korea brought it on itself, and we’re headed to a war if things don’t change.”

Graham, a former Air Force lawyer and officer, added that North Korea is “making the biggest miscalculation in modern history” for thinking that best way for Kim’s regime to survive is to be able to attack the United States.

“If North Korea watches CNN, I hope you understand that President Trump is not going to allow the United States to live under the threat of a nuclear missile, a nuclear weapon coming to America from North Korea.

“And if you want that capability, you’re going to get in a fight with the United States and you’re going to lose that fight and that’ll be the end of the regime,” he continued.

“Even if it means thousands, hundreds of thousands of people over there get hurt to protect America. Now that’s the choice that the president has to make. I stand with him.” (Related: North Korea CAN strike the US: Here’s what you can do to protect yourself.)

Graham went on to say that there needn’t be a conflict at all, but that Washington isn’t going to decide.

“The best outcome is not to have a war. I don’t want a war, he doesn’t want a war, but we’re not going to let this crazy man in North Korea have the capability to hit the homeland. We’re not going to live this way,” Graham said. “To our friends in China, we’re not going to live this way. You need to help us, and if you don’t help us, we’ll take care of it. And us taking care of it means that the war is in your backyard, not ours.”

Graham has made this dire prediction before — one which he says is based on personal, private conversations he’s had with Trump.

As reported by The National Sentinel, Graham said in August there indeed is “a military option” for dealing with North Korea, should it develop nuclear weapons that can threaten the United States, contrary to the conventional wisdom that no such option exists.

“They’re wrong,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show. “There is a military option to destroy North Korea’s program and North Korea itself. If there’s going to be a war to stop him [Kim Jong Un], it will be over there. If thousands die, they’re going to die over there, they’re not going to die here and he’s [Trump] told me that to my face.”

The senior Republican from South Carolina also said war with Pyongyang was “inevitable” if the nuclear weapons development continued.

“When you’re the president of the United States, where does your allegiance lie? To the people of the United States. This man, Kim Jong Un, is threatening America with a nuclear tip missile. President Trump doesn’t want a war, the Chinese can stop this, but to China, South Korea, and Japan, Donald Trump is not going to allow this missile.”

We’re headed for war “if things don’t change,” Graham told CNN. Discover more news on the topic of World War III at WWIII.news.

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

CNN.com

TheNationalSentinel.com