Republican presidential candidate John Kasich speaks during a town hall style campaign stop at the Crowne Plaza on April 19, 2016 in Annapolis, Maryland.

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John Kasich said, "I believe the best way to solve this problem is to eradicate the leadership"

The Ohio governor said, "Moving big warships in and having a war, I don't think that's going to work"

Washington CNN  — 

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says he knows how to tackle the issue of North Korea: take out leader Kim Jong Un and his allies.

Speaking to reporters Friday at an event sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor, the former Republican presidential candidate laid out what would be his North Korea plan if he were in the Oval Office.

“I believe the best way to solve this problem is to eradicate the leadership,” Kasich said. “There are ways in which that can be achieved.”

Kasich said that other options that the Trump team seems to be pursuing, including a military strike against the nation, would result in a major loss of lives, especially in neighboring Seoul, South Korea.

“Moving big warships in and having a war, I don’t think that’s going to work,” he said. “Too much loss of life. But I don’t have the generals sitting around the table.”

“We are getting very serious that they cannot have an ICBM,” he said, referring to intercontinental ballistic missiles. “There’s a point at which saber-rattling is not effective, and you have to be very careful on how you approach that,” Kasich said.

In order to avoid the devastating loss, he said the United States could “remove a number of the top people and have a more benign leadership there that understands what’s at risk.”

When asked if the United States should do this militarily, Kasich responded, “You have to have very good intelligence. You have to have an ability to do things very quickly. It’s not beyond our capability to achieve that.”

“I don’t want to say any more than that, but that’s what I believe we need to do, as opposed to a full military strike.”

In an interview with Reuters earlier this week, President Donald Trump warned of a possible “major, major conflict” with North Korea.

“We’d love to solve things diplomatically, but it’s very difficult,” Trump said.