KCNA via Reuters North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides a target-striking contest of the special operation forces of the Korean People's Army (KPA) to occupy islands in this undated picture provided by KCNA in Pyongyang on August 25, 2017.
- Legendary investor and Democratic megadonor George Soros gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday.
- Soros said the US's unwillingness to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power is setting the two countries on a "course toward nuclear war."
- Soros also criticized Trump and claimed the president was trying to create a "mafia state" similar to Russia.
George Soros on Thursday said the Trump administration's refusal to accept North Korea's nuclear capabilities is putting the countries on a path toward nuclear war.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Soros said that for the US to avoid a nuclear war with North Korea, President Donald Trump and other leaders should accept that North Korea has joined it as a nuclear power.
"The threat of nuclear war is so horrendous that we are inclined to ignore it. But it is real," Soros said, according to a text of his prepared remarks. "Indeed, the United States is set on a course toward nuclear war by refusing to accept that North Korea has become a nuclear power."
Soros, the long-time Democratic megadonor and hedge fund manager, said US concern over North Korea's nuclear capability is cultivating a vicious circle that is pushing the two countries toward conflict.
"This creates a strong incentive for North Korea to develop its nuclear capacity with all possible speed, which in turn may induce the United States to use its nuclear superiority preemptively; in effect to start a nuclear war in order to prevent nuclear war - an obviously self-contradictory strategy," he said.
The only solution, Soros said, is to recognize North Korea as a nuclear power and have an alliance of the US, China, Japan, and South Korea establish an agreement to prevent the possibility of a war.
In addition to the nuclear threat, Soros highlighted his concern with the Trump administration and the populism the president espouses to embody.
"Clearly, I consider the Trump administration a danger to the world. But I regard it as a purely temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020, or even sooner," Soros said. "I give President Trump credit for motivating his core supporters brilliantly, but for every core supporter, he has created a greater number of core opponents who are equally strongly motivated. That is why I expect a Democratic landslide in 2018."
Soros compared Trump's moves in the US to Vladimir Putin's Russia.
"I find the current moment in history rather painful. Open societies are in crisis, and various forms of dictatorships and mafia states, exemplified by Putin's Russia, are on the rise," he said, "In the United States, President Trump would like to establish a mafia state but he can't, because the Constitution, other institutions, and a vibrant civil society won't allow it."
In addition to a "Democratic wave in 2018," Soros said his goal is to reestablish a functioning two-party system that would uphold the US institutions.
"Open society will always have its enemies, and each generation has to reaffirm its commitment to open society for it to survive," Soros said.