James R. Clapper Quotes

If there's any country that has the capacity not to control North Korea, but to influence North Korea, it's still China. The Chinese always say they have very little influence. They have more than they say they do. We should put pressure on them to do it and there's finally, we're seeing the first signs of a little bit of Chinese disaffection. At some point they're getting tired of the antics of this country. This is a dangerous ally for China to have. And the more Chinese can pressure them and put the economic screws on them, the better it will be for everybody.

Policymakers in Washington and Tokyo know that they have little leverage to bring down the North Korean regime. But they also fear the regional chaos that regime change would bring..

I can't take anything off the table. Because you look at some of these countries, you look at North Korea, we're doing nothing there. China should solve that problem for us. China should go into North Korea. China is totally powerful as it relates to North Korea.

I think what you can see is that we have worked very closely with China. China has really stood up in putting the pressure on North Korea.

No amount of sanctioning will persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons, nor will China step up and solve the problem for us.

The only country that can stop North Korea is China.

There is very little hope that the United States or anyone else can do much to stabilize Iraq, Libya, Syria or Egypt. Stabilizing Iran, and bringing it back into the family of nations, is much more possible. That would be a 'win' for both sides.

One of the things the United States does well is building coalitions. What the U.S. knows is that if you don't have a coalition with you, you will have a coalition against you. I don't want to see China and Russia on the side of Iran more strongly than they are.

A war in the Taiwan Strait would destroy China's international relations overnight. It would destroy Chinese - Japanese relations, not to mention Chinese - American relations.

With regard to North Korea, between myself and President Obama earlier, with regard to the so-called launch of satellite, the missile launch, we shared the view that it undermines the efforts of the various countries concerned to achieve the resolution through dialogue.

Foreign policy helps incumbents.

China, North Korea's last ally in the world has just voted agaisnt them [in the United Nations]. What would you do if you thought every country in the world was against you and you wanted to survive? You would buy insurance. And the best insurance you could get to prevent invasion would be nuclear weapons, and that is just what North Korea has done. So now, when the President [Trump] threatens them, what do they do? They go out and buymore insurance.

Whether you're dealing with your allies in Europe or you're dealing with a resurgent Russia, whether you're dealing with Iran or North Korea, you have to use the whole panoply of national tools of power to deal with the challenges the world faces.

If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will.

China is the one, the only one, that can control Kim Jong Un, this crazy, fat kid that's running North Korea.

The United States has been locked in an escalating confrontation with Iran ever since President Trump decided to pull out of the nuclear deal in 2018 and to impose unilateral sanctions in 2019.

President Trump is right to welcome China's help in bringing North Korea's illicit nuclear program to heal, but he's also correct that if China doesn't go along, the U.S. can act alone.

A feasible North Korea strategy must consider how to reassure China that our objectives on the peninsula are not aggressive.

I do not see it as desirable for South Korea to take the back seat and watch discussions between the U.S. and China.

You have North Korea, you have nuclear weapons, and China could solve that problem. And they're not helping us at all.

For now we must continue to strengthen our sanctions and pressure on North Korea.

The United States prefers that Iraq meet its obligations voluntarily, yet we are prepared for the alternative.

Israeli interests are not necessarily in harmony with the American interests.

Sanctions are a sign of irritation; they are not the instrument of serious policies.

American presence is, you know, the major cause of balance of power and the stability in this region.