Senator Markey says it is misleading to declare that North Korea has taken a ‘number of encouraging measures’

Washington (September 25, 2018) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the East Asia Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after President Donald Trump’s speech today before the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

“The United Nations and the world’s top diplomats laughed at President Trump’s outlandish claims of achievement, but the real joke is on us as North Korea continues its nuclear weapons program unabated,” said Senator Markey. “The only way the Trump administration has surpassed its predecessors is in the deficiency of its negotiations with the Kim regime.

“It is misleading to declare that North Korea has taken a ‘number of encouraging measures,’ while Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to produce fissile material and improve missile capabilities. I fully support diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang, but engagement is not diplomacy. The President’s claims that progress toward denuclearization is beyond what many could have imagined is simply not supported by facts. The nuclear threat North Korea poses is and will remain very real until the Trump administration clearly articulates its strategy to actually halt North Korea’s production of nuclear bomb material and the means to deliver it through a reasonable, sequenced plan in coordination with our closest allies and partners.

“A strong and secure America will not come through a declaration of greatness, it will come from great feats of diplomacy. I have long supported direct diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang. But the only way to peacefully reduce the North Korean nuclear threat is to ensure that direct, coherent, and fully-resourced engagement is backed by sufficient economic pressure.”

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