WASHINGTON, D.C. — Representative Rob Bishop, R-Utah, says the talk from North Korea right now about Guam is mainly just rhetoric.
“The comments by North Korea, I don’t think you should take as anything out of the ordinary from what has been going on,” he told Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL Newsradio.
Bishop was in Guam earlier this year. He is on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the US territories.
“It makes sense if North Korea would threaten somewhere, it would threaten there first, because it is the new line of defense that we have for the United States,” he said.
He says Guam is heavily invested with military bases and military members.
Bishop says the threats from North Korea are an effort to change the way the discussion is going, after sanctions from the United Nations, and new pressure from China. But he reiterated that he believes it is just another example of empty rhetoric.
As far as President Trump’s comments about responding with “fire and fury,” Bishop said: “Sometimes that’s rhetoric that I think North Korea will understand. And let’s face it, any attack on Guam is an attack on the United States.”
However it is any action that follows these remarks by the North that will be troubling, he says. Though he believes without the support of Russia and China, any action by North Korea would be foolish.
You can hear Representative Bishop’s full interview on KSL Newsradio below.