Idaho Sen. Jim Risch (R) will be at the closing Olympic ceremony this Sunday, despite his recent comments on North Korea.
Risch will join first daughter Ivanka Trump and others included in the U.S. presidential delegation in PyeongChang, South Korea this weekend for the Winter Olympic closing ceremony.
Last week, Risch spoke at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, saying if a war breaks out with North Korea, it would be one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the world.
“The end of it is going to see mass casualties the likes of which the planet has never seen. It will be of biblical proportions,” he says.
He told the Spokesman Review Wednesday that there’s no one who wants to see war on the Korean peninsula, but that Kim Jong Un “can’t continue down the road he’s been pursuing.”
In past interviews, Risch has said North Korea should take President Donald Trump's comments to unleash "fire and fury" against the authoritarian nation seriously if they continue to escalate military tensions.
“I’m not going to sit here and criticize the president. He is the president of the United States, he has said what’s on his mind. I think the people in Pyongyang need to listen very carefully to what he said and they’re going to have to make a decision as to how they want to go forward,” he said during an interview with CNN in August.
Athletes from both North and South Korea marched together during the opening Olympic ceremony and even combined to form a unified women’s hockey team.
The Winter Olympics end Sunday.
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