Former presidential candidate Ben Carson, now the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is said to have expressed concerns that the US could look like the film “The Purge” if North Korea wiped out America’s electrical grid.
Mr Carson made the reported comment at a Capitol Hill holiday party, at a time when tensions were rising between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“Did you know that if North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon into our exosphere, it could take out our entire electrical grid?” Mr Carson asked his acting chief of staff, according to the Washington Post.
“What’s that movie where there’s complete lawlessness and anarchy for one night a year?” he continued. “ ‘The Purge’! It will be like ‘The Purge’ all the time.”
Mr Kim has continued to vex Mr Trump and the international community as North Korea has continued to defy United Nations resolutions by developing its nuclear weapons programme.
The regime announced in November launched a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking “the whole mainland of the US,” claiming the nation had achieved its aim of becoming a nuclear state.
In his speech on New Year’s Day, Mr Kim warned that he has a nuclear launch button on his desk.
Mr Trump retorted on Twitter that his button was “much bigger and “more powerful.”
Vice President Mike Pence has signalled he is open to meeting with North Korean officials on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics in South Korea this month.
