"Absolutely and immediately," she said in an interview on ABC. "The people of Hawaii are paying the price now for decades of failed leadership in this country, of failure to directly negotiate, to prevent us from getting to this point where we're dealing with this threat today, setting unrealistic preconditions."

Trump should speak with Kim without preconditions to "work out the differences, figure out a way to build this pathway towards denuclearization," she added.

Washington has argued that Pyongyang should first halt its weapons testing before any talks can take place. Trump reaffirmed last week that he is open to dialogue with the communist regime when the conditions are right.

Gabbard said Trump should recognize the reason North Korea refuses to let go of its nukes.

"It is critical that we end our policies of regime change wars to provide that credible guarantee that the United States is not going to go in and topple the North Korean regime, so that these conversations can begin toward denuclearization," she said.

Citing the examples of Libya and Iraq, where the leaders were toppled after surrendering their weapons of mass destruction, the lawmaker noted, "We've got to understand North Korea is holding on to these nuclear weapons because they think it is their only protection from the United States coming in and doing to them what the United States has done to so many countries throughout history."

In a separate interview on CNN, Gabbard highlighted the potential for a mistake like the false alert to lead to a war.

"It's these kinds of mistakes that we have seen happen in the past that bring us to this brink of nuclear war that could be unintentional," she said. "And that's really what is at stake here for the people of Hawaii." (Yonhap)