Sen. Nelson says Trump, N. Korea fighting is dangerous,

MERRITT ISLAND — U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said verbal sparring between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un could set both countries down a dangerous path, if it is not scaled back.

“What we need to do is let everything calm down a little bit,” Nelson said Wednesday during a visit to the Space Coast. “You don’t want the rhetoric to suddenly escalate to where it turns to action.”

During the past week, the two world leaders have exchanged threats on social media and through staterun news agencies.

The rhetoric started shortly after the Washington Post reported that North Korea was closer than previously thought to being able to strike the United States with a nuclear missile. When asked about it during an appearance at one of his golf clubs Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. would unleash “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if provoked.

North Korea has since threatened to unleash an “enveloping fire” on Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific Ocean.

Nelson reminded people of the Cuban Missile Crisis, a 13-day standoff in October 1962 during which the Soviet Union deployed ballistic missiles to Cuba, about 90 miles off the Florida coast.

“We were on the point of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union,” he said Wednesday. “Let’s take a page from the history book.”

That standoff eventually broke after U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev negotiated a deal to avert conflict.

“They worked out a plan and negotiated,” Nelson said, noting that it was the closest the U.S. has come to nuclear war. “Let’s hope we don’t get nearly as close to that this time.”

Later, Nelson released a statement: “North Korea poses a serious threat to the U.S. and all options should be on the table to protect the American people. We either do nothing, go to war or negotiate a stand down, and so far we’ve seen no sign that they’re willing to negotiate.”