The Korea Times
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday described North Korea's menacing nuclear program as "the lesson" to learn, as he defended the U.S. military operation against Iran, which a Pentagon official said has cost an estimated $25 billion. Hegseth made the remarks during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, stressing that Iran's strategy to build nuclear weapons mirrors that of North Korea, as he pointed out that like Pyongyang, Tehran had been building a "conventional shield" of missiles to double down on its nuclear program. "North Korea is the lesson. Everybody thought North Korea shouldn't have a weapon," he said. "Under the Clinton administration, they gathered so many ballistic missiles that their ballistic missile shield allowed them to blackmail the region and the world (and) to say, 'We're going to get a nuke and you can't do anything about it,'" he said. The Pentagon chief cast President Donald Trump's decision to launch the military mission against Iran as a "bold" choice to deny Iran an ability to build nuclear weapons, as questions lingered over wh
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