Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, who startled security experts at an international security conference in Munich, Germany over the weekend with threats of a clash of “Biblical proportions” between the United States and North Korea, said today that he meant every word of it – but only if North Korea uses nuclear weapons first.

Risch told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, “If this thing starts, it’s going to be probably one of the worst catastrophic events in the history of our civilization, but it is going to be very, very brief. The end of it is going to see mass casualties, the likes of which the planet has never seen. It will be of Biblical proportions.”

Risch, who addressed the Idaho House and Senate today along with Sen. Mike Crapo, told Eye on Boise, “There’s no one who wants conflict on the Korean peninsula. But that matter is entirely in the hands of one person, and that is Kim Jong Un. He can’t continue down the road he’s been pursuing.” You can read my full story here at spokesman.com.