"Having said that, during the Clinton administration years, here we concluded an unenforceable and untransparent agreement, which allowed [North Korea] to keep plutonium rods in a reactor … in order to make them nuclear material," McCain said. "[His negotiations] would put them on the path to develop nuclear weapons. … And we did nothing but more talk."
At a news conference Tuesday, McCain called Clinton's dealings with North Korea a failure.
"I would remind Sen. [Hillary] Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration's policies that the framework agreement her husband's administration negotiated was a failure," McCain said after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.
"The Koreans received millions and millions in energy assistance. They've diverted millions of dollars of food assistance to their military," he said.
McCain told "Good Morning America" that the United States should take North Korea's threats seriously.
"It gets more and more dangerous as time goes by because they have these short-range missile capabilities," he said.
McCain called the alleged tests North Korea's "chance to be on the world stage and blackmail the West and literally every country in the world into propping up … a failed state."
"And it's exacerbated by the problem that this 'dear leader' is not totally rational," he said.
It is possible that North Korea could attempt to use nuclear missiles, McCain said.
"There is no doubt they're attempting to develop those missiles. Whether they will and when is questionable, but they're certainly making the effort," he said. "They have been able to develop closer-range missiles; some of which they have exported to other countries."