A U.S. expert has said that the United States should sternly respond to a seventh nuclear test by North Korea.

Robert Carlin, a research fellow at the Stimson Center, issued the position at a webinar titled "A Mid-Term Report Card for Biden's North Korea Policy” on Tuesday.

Formerly the head of the Northeast Asia Division in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the U.S. State Department, Carlin said that if the North conducts a seventh nuclear test, the U.S. should bring “holy hell” down upon the regime or risk looking foolish.

Robert Gallucci, who served as a U.S. negotiator in denuclearization talks with North Korea in 1994, said in the webinar that the U.S. is right in pursuing the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but needs to consider changing tactics to achieve the goal.

He advocated against the continual insistence that the U.S. has no hostile intent against the regime, calling for a more powerful statement.