seriously send us an e-mail. north korea vows to bolster its nuclear arsenal in response to tough new u.n. sanctions the latest on this edition of politic. politicking on larry king on saturday the u.n. security council unanimously approved new sanctions to punish north korea sanctions which included a ban on coal and other exports after the hermit nation's recent end of the continental ballistic missile launches the us ambassador of the un nikki haley color resolution the single largest economic sanctions packaged ever leveled

against north korea in response to north korea has vowed to increase its nuclear arsenal and promised revenge against the united states what's the latest where does the trump and ministration and the u.n. go from here we'll talk about it with robin c.e.o. brian he's the former u.s. representative to the u.n. general assembly during the george w. bush administration he was also foreign policy adviser to governor as mitt romney and scott walker during the presidential campaigns and he's the author of while america slept restoring american leadership to a world in crisis he joins me on sept here in los angeles ok what do you make of all of this well it was a big victory at the u.n. larry and thanks the kind introduction for ambassador haley to get the u.n. sanctions we've been trying to get sanctions all through the obama years and were unable to do so so it's a victory for ambassador haley for rex tillerson the secretary of state and for president trump to to bring together all these. countries including the russians

the chinese who have a veto on the super committee council and get them to sign on with the sanctions so big victory for the trump administration and i'm proud of the baster haley's and her work out of the un they've been vetoing it previously they had been and what change then i think the. a list of missile test which are it would show that north korea now may have the opportunity to hit not only the midwest of the united states the west coast but also china and parts of russia with their ballistic missiles this is becoming a very serious crisis and i think even the chinese and russians have realized that they'd like to have north korea on a chain like a pit bull to keep us busy but i think they're realizing that the dog maybe rabbit do you think north korea was disappointed that china didn't assert its influence i'm sure they were i think they probably expected a veto by the chinese and didn't get it and they're disappointed now there's not much they can do there's an international consensus doesn't china have some sort of control in north korea listen i think this i think kim jong un is a is

a crafty dictator he's a brutal cruel man he's a little bit irrational but there's only you know there's a lot the chinese can do but i don't think they have total control over him. so no one does i don't think anyone's got total control over him the chinese have the most control and if if there was a country that could influence north korea it would be china up until now they haven't done a lot to exert that influence hopefully that's going to change you recently reach we do do former u.n. ambassador john bolton's assertion that the trumpet ministration must convince china to support reunification of north and south korea of course it's the only diplomatic option left is that possible it will be difficult i mean just remember how difficult people don't think about it now but you remember the when the wall came down in berlin and how people you know. really wring their hands and wondered even prime minister thatcher was concerned about the reunification of

germany it went very smoothly i don't expect a reunification of north and south korea goes with lee as it did in germany but south korea has the economic paralysis to to help lift the north koreans out of poverty and to reunite the peninsula and you'd have to work with the chinese the chinese don't want to merican troops on their border would have to take that into consideration we'd have to make sure that north korea was demilitarized the chinese didn't feel like they were threatened by the west being on their border but that's the solution to the korean crisis we've got to get rid of this this family mafia dictatorship that's running a country and threatening the whole world how do you do that assassination look there's the diplomatic options which haven't worked and we've been trying those sense george h.w. bush right so it's bush clinton bush obama it has the diplomatic course hasn't worked we have to go for hard core sanctions we have to cut them off i've talked about rhodesia style sanctions where you cut off all their fuel you cut off postal

service you cut off telephone internet don't let their hackers connect anywhere i mean absolutely isolate and they want to be the hermit kingdom turn them into the hermit kingdom to do that you have to have the chinese seal the border just like in the old days south africa when it was under tremendous pressure seal the border to rhodesia and the rhodesian regime fell and the fear is with their backs to the wall do they throw the ball. well they could throw the bomb or even a conventional strike on seoul as you know we were talking about off air and you brought up having been in seoul how close seoul is to the d.m.z. and to those those massive batteries of north korean artillery that could rain even conventional weapons conventional artillery shells down on on seoul so it's a dangerous scenario if you put it back to the wall if that happened we'd have to we have to deal with it militarily so we don't know what's not how do we know as next look i think we're getting very close to an end game because i don't think that president trump is going to allow. kim jong un to hold the united states at

least the western and midwestern united states hostage. and so i think that either china is going to get on board diplomatically or there may be there may be a military option or about his threat to retaliate ten times over those if he is a very boisterous. cocky guy but when i was out at the aspen national security forum a couple weeks ago and our generals were very adamant that the military option should be the last option and it's not a good option but if they're given the mission to end this guy's ability to threaten the united states they will succeed in that mission it gave me a lot of confidence she worse than this was absolutely i mean look he is look at look at the way he's killing his family his father and grandfather didn't wipe out their family i mean he's killed his brother with nerve nerve agents in an international airport in malaysia you know he took out his uncle with anti-aircraft

guns he's thrown some of his nieces and nephews in with wild dogs to be eaten alive i mean this this is a this is a very brutal cruel sick individual one would keep solo's people supporting him. they look like men mickens it's i think it's fear. he he pays off the elite i he uses embassies and consulates around the world to to. african counterfeit money drugs nuclear technology the iranians are giving him money for i.c.b.m. and a nuclear know how and he's taking that money and he's keeping the elite and the leaders of the military in the chip so to speak and if anybody dares oppose him on the street they die and not only do they die their family dies their extended family dies their entire village might die so there's a tremendous amount of fear under underpinning that dictatorship so some people live in good there are some people living good there

a lot of people live in concentration camps that we haven't seen since world war two larry it's pretty horrific switching subjects the commandant of the u.s. coast guard recently said that the arctic could be the next south china sea and territorial disputes you agree i'm not sure becomes the next south china sea where you have the chinese going up and building islands artificial islands like they're doing in the south china sea the arctic still a pretty even though it's melting it's still a pretty forbidding environment but he is correct in that. they're territorial claims with denmark and greenland with norway with russia with canada with the united states the arctic powers and then also the non arctic powers that want to have the right to pass through the northern passage now that you know climate change is creating a ceiling there and so there are going to be competing claims and when there are competing claims in the maritime spear that draws in coast guards and navies and there's going to and there are a bunch of folks that we shoulder to shoulder in the arctic you know russia claims

most of the arctic right they right i don't think they're right look everybody has pretty expansive claims that's what you do and there's never been a tribunals to negotiate you know to to rule on those claims that everybody takes we take all our last in khost the russians have the largest close line against against the arctic followed by the canadians and then that the danes of course with greenland people leave that out so there are these competing claims of the russians have legitimate. lames there there are claims aren't as legitimate as far as they're expand as far as they're making them but they do have legitimate claims in the arctic as do we enter our nato allies russia has sung in the un convention of the law of c. the united states and north korea and libya have not should we read of you i've been opposed to ratifying it as it currently stands and that's probably a minority position governor romney was opposed to it governor walker was opposed to it so there's a group of folks that are opposed to it most international lawyers and most of the folks in the navy and coast guard would support ratifying it my position is is that

. what we care about free navigation is already incompetent customary international law what i'm concerned about is the put in an international body like the un i serve at the un in the un has a role but to put an international body in charge of what happens on the high seas i think is very dangerous i trust the united states navy in the coast guard to honor the rules and to keep the global commons safe for everyone i'm a little worried about having a u.n. organization chaired by zimbabwe telling us what we can or can't do on the high seas that's my concern with our partners in not signing it to north korea and libya it seems like a comedic politics makes strange bedfellows in that and they're strange bedfellows on this one i think the i think the law of the sea convention you know lost or on clause however you want to call it can be improved i think we could get to a point where we could eventually sign it i'm just not in favor of sign it now and

it and our our friends who have inside of there are friends or our adversaries who haven't signed it you know make a it doesn't look good being in that club right above the united states and russia is going to get better or worse. i think it really is up to vladimir putin at this point i mean remember what happened how we got here lattimer putin invaded ukraine and an extra mia and it's the first time a european country if you consider the russians or asian european country have a foot in both camps changed the borders of europe by force since nine hundred thirty eight and we just can't let that stand and so if the russians want to get out of eastern ukraine if they want to stop killing ukrainians if they want to be part of the solution in syria and deal with isis but not just try and prop up this wicked assad regime if they want to be partners i think russia would be welcome back to the civilized community of nations with open arms but they've got to make

some choices and threatening to invade lithuania latvia estonia the captive nations that we remember those old postage stamps that we used to see as kids if they want to get out of that business and stop threatening their neighbors i think they can i think we're going to good relations with the russians resisting really forcefully i mean he signed the sanctions cold unconstitutional what he would do is this something where you know the signing statements aren't unusual president obama did or president bush did it so i don't take a lot from the fact that he had a signing statement when he signed the russian sanctions i thought it was important he signed the sanctions for national unity as you mentioned. i think the trump feels to think present trump feels two things that one he could negotiate with putin and come to some sort of agreement and get putin to do what the united states would want to do you know whether he's got those sort of negotiating skills or not you know it's we probably won't get to the point to see if he does or not and number two i think president trump feels personally assaulted by this idea that he

colluded with the russians on the election and is just you know he's adamant that he didn't and he feels he's being unfairly persecuted and i think the combination of those things. makes russian policy a little bit difficult right now for president trump another prime accent difficult for the russians say right there will be back with robert o'brian don't go away. about your sudden passing i've only just learned you were a south and taken your last wrong turn. you're out caught up to us we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each breath. but then my feeling started to change you talked about war like it was again still some are fond of you those that didn't like to question

our arcade and i secretly promised to never again like it said one does not leave a funeral the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one different person i speak to now because there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. a. place. called the future we don't need to go to. everyone in the world should experience freedom and you'll get it oddly or will. the world according to just. pick up the bad world cup i am sure there are

tricked. you want to know if you look like the real thing is one. analyze the bottom three. what. i got. to politicking let's get back to a conversation with robert c. o'brien the former u.s. representative to the u.n. general assembly during the administration of george w. bush there were a significant number of carbon former military officers all in key positions in the white house they used to be a fear as eisenhower pointed out beware of too much military influence in the white

house do we have too much now or are you happy about this i happy with the folks i understand that concern but i'm happy about the folks who are in these positions when you look at general mattis retired marine four star over at the pentagon. he's a combat veteran highly decorated but he was also a scholar up at the hoover institute at stanford he's a you know a monk warrior very very smart man understands how important civilian leadership in the military is you look at general kelly who's over at the chief of staff at the white house he served in a number of positions as a liaison with congress and understands politics very well and general mcmaster is the guy who wrote about vietnam and and president johnson rely overly relying on his military experts and getting us deeper into vietnam when we probably shouldn't have so i think these. warriors to retire to retired generals

one active duty general know master are the type of men that we want to govern i think their national assets victor david davis hanson wrote a great piece and said these are assets not just the trumpet ministration of the country i think they reassure our allies and i think they give our adversaries pause knowing that they're there or about the rumors of mcmaster might be moved to have ghana stand. you know this is the problem with being so successful is if you had to look around and you thought what general my going to send to afghanistan to try and fix it and i spent time as you know in afghanistan and running a rule of law program there in the bush administration it's a very very difficult place to succeed and i mean it's been the graveyard of empires the russians the brits it's been difficult for us if i had to send someone i'd want to send general mcmaster but the problem is i'm not sure i'd want to take him out of the white house where he's doing a great job as the national security adviser so if he goes to afghanistan it's a four star form so it's a promotion for him and he goes back to doing what soldiers do which is commanded troops and so i think it's

a tough question of as it were to keep him in the white house or to send a mass gana stand up many people realize that every understands all along is war over it's a long war and it's a hard war larry and that doesn't tell you this first time i interviewed mr putin. he's holding is very interesting i would never want to tell another country what to do. but get out of afghanistan you can't win there was the right. we don't americans don't want to be anywhere long term anywhere in the world now we have been in south korea we remain in germany we remain in japan so we've gotten used to those places but americans and american soldiers and american people don't want their folks out we're not in and we don't have empire we don't want folks out in afghanistan or africa or asia for long periods of time unfortunately we saw the last time that we left afghanistan a little bit precipitous lee even though we didn't have a lot of troops on the ground the agency was there and we had diplomatic strong diplomatic efforts there and we pulled back and afghan the taliban took over in

afghanistan gave sanctuary to al-qaeda and on you know we'll never forget september eleventh two thousand and one that plot was you know directed from afghanistan they trained for in afghanistan and we've got to remember that we don't want to safe haven we need to figure out a way to help the afghans win the war for themselves or a lot of great brave wonderful courageous secular if you know moderate afghans that like the way it is now and don't want to return to taliban rule we need to help them fight that war and when it getting the right mix of troops and resources there is really tough it's the deviled three administrations now it's not an easy task but i think we have to work it and get it right we don't want to let it get us down go back to how it was you know a trim solid position is on the. you know i think he's doing what what president obama did when president obama came in and i was part of that review i stayed over a couple years in the obama administration he took you know nine months reviewing

all of his options in afghanistan and trying to come up with a policy that will work. he got part of it right he got part of the wrong his surge worked but he told the afghans the taliban when he was leaving and there's a saying in afghanistan the afghans will tell you you know you've got the watches we've got the time and president trump is now going through a review and he's trying to figure out what policy will get right for him in afghanistan so i'm not surprised he hasn't come out with the program yet but i would expect it's own always great seeing you thank you for having me today marks two hundred one days of the trumpet administration that's two hundred one days of nearly continuous chaos infighting and unconventional executive leadership the g.o.p. and mr trump supporters hope the newly named white house chief of staff retired general john kelly might be able to tamp down the chaos control access to the president perhaps finally get the administration refocused on policy rather than

person out of the questions and mr trump's tweets among other things there is however a growing concern from critics about the president's willingness to put generals at the forefront of his administration. is there reason to worry about a military mindset on mr trump's policy and could the president's reliance on generals compromise civilian control over military and foreign policy let's talk about that with there and talk on national security expert a former member of israeli special operations counterterrorist unit he's also founder of cherry's a leading manufacturer of law enforcement products for terrorism readiness too much military in washington a good idea or bad. it depends on what we're talking about i think when it comes to isis and i think when it comes to. the macro security picture i like the idea.

and i think it's terrible i think we haven't had enough military honor on our boards and overseeing the decisions that we're making and i don't look at the old school leadership of this country when when we had volunteers we had we were conscript army here in the united states there's something about having. a little bit of a military mindset when it comes to forming sculpting where you come out at the end of the day and i think that there's something that we've been missing now for a while when it comes to our national security and i don't think that having military minded leaders is a bad thing right now maybe we scale that back in twenty years when everything calms down but for now i like it good luck control not control but i don't think anyone's going to take control from donald. to be in power i don't think anyone snatching that away from coming to the charles krauthammer recently wrote a column asserting that what he called trumps worst week proved to particularly fine our for american democracy that the system is passing the trump stress test we

with that. at the system's working. i think so too to an extent just trying to stress tests is a tough it's a tough one to see what happens with that that's going to take a minute to see what happens with that test you know you are you optimistic or pessimistic. in terms of this whole situation i want a state of the world it's only a dollar an hour. long at all. i think. he has been elected and i think. no matter how much contention you may have on the left for him. you gotta let him at least have a shot and i think. he has and will do some decent things and i think he's

got a certain mindset that will enable some productive decisions to get made with some decent follow through. i don't know how successful he's ultimately going to be in getting done everything he wants to do i say you got to give him a shot let him take off the gloves and let him go stop holding him back let him let him let him try in put through some of the things that i think he can do you know it's our personal feelings that are motions are getting in the way of new ideas and not something that can hinder you want to comes to national security and that's one come from gotta let the new stuff seep through you gotta let some security osmosis happen here aren't there early signs that concern you though. well yeah there's things that donald in terms of things that donald does in terms of yeah i mean like you know stop tweeting every emotion you know let's let's get a little more presidential in the way we do let's with leaders in my opinion it's always it's never been about how well you can cater to those who elected you would

how can you pull in the other side and bring them together you know j.f.k. just came back from hyannis port there's a thing with that family there was a thing with j.f.k. you remember it is it it's the ability to be able to bring in the nega trons the naysayers and told them over into the that's really the dolls' got to lead me can't lead with fear on this you gotta lead you know can donald get it together and pull in that other half that's what i want for him i want him to open up and. whole this whole thing and give me thing you some of that about isis afghan officials claim the taliban and isis forces last joint attack on a village in northern afghanistan you're like they're huge. i happy with medicine and tillerson and this whole fight against isis well i if you're asking me what we've been able to accomplish since trump has been around dealing with us is i says as we haven't seen any more beheadings on you tube we haven't seen as much

propaganda coming out of isis the reason why is because they are literally being cooked in a pressure boiler by donald and his administration. in the reason why is because they've gone on to this annihilation. isis annihilation campaign where i got to say i appreciate this about donald he's let the generals. you know command and form their own decisions based on their own expertise and essentially has initiated this campaign where i says it's seventy percent almost destroyed in iraq it's over fifty percent been destroyed in syria over fifty percent of rock has been taken back and that was the original isis if you remember caliphate over fifty percent of that has been taken back people been allowed to get back into their homes slowly and that's because of donalds and isis annihilation policy which is you gotta let the generals do general things you cannot constrain them and what that meant

specifically was the generals were putting troops in surrounding these towns before they even begin the operations so they couldn't even escape and that kind of pressure is what's needed with terrorists are you concerned that this russian thing and the election and the investigation. could blow the whole thing open i am i am i think everybody has a bit of a concern and the reason why is because we're here we hear nothing of it to the point were is it is it's but you'll asian or we pay on speculation now. who's leaking this information and where's it coming from and the fact that it's getting into the media is significantly as it is makes you raise a red flag in your head you can't bury it in just stop thinking about it it's really out there and so it makes me think this could really screw everything up or it could end of tampering with donald's. ultimate leadership. having said. the guy's pretty stubborn and he seems to march to the beat of his own drum don't

know how that's going to work out for him in totality at the end of this thing but he seems to be pretty strong willed so i don't know if maybe i'll just keep going tony and going always great seeing aaron loved and thank you so much from thank you for joining us on this edition of politicking remember you can join the conversation on my facebook page or tweet me at kings things and don't forget use the politicking hash tag and that's all for this edition of politicking. about your sudden passing i phone lee just learned you were a south and taken your last turn. here at the top to us we all knew it would i tell you i'm sorry i could so i write these last words in hopes to put to rest these things that i never got off my chest. i remember when we first met my life turned on each. but then my feeling started to change you talked about more like it

was again still some marshawn to view those that didn't like to question our archaea and i secretly promised to never be like it said one does not leave a funeral in the same as one enters the mind it's consumed with death this one quite different i speak to you now as there are no other takers. to claim that mainstream media has met its maker. for decades the american middle class has been railroaded by washington politics. big body corporate interest test rode out a lot of boys that's how it is i'm a new culture in this country now that's where i come in. i would feel i've fought hard for you america i'll make sure you don't get real.