Ed Markey: “I come to the floor to raise my concerns over the outcome of the summit between the United States and North Korea. Now…”

“I come to the floor to raise my concerns over the outcome of the summit between the United States and North Korea. Now, after witnessing heated rhetoric from both sides, the unexpected turn toward diplomacy by President Trump and Kim Jong Un was, by all accounts, a very welcome development. As there is no military solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis, I was encouraged to see direct engagement, and I have long advocated for this approach. However, I am concerned that the agreement signed this morning does little to address the threats and challenges we face. First, the text of the statement was the most vague and least detailed of any signed by North Korea over the past three decades. Despite his claims to the contrary, President Trump got a weaker deal, with fewer commitments, than any of his predecessors. Nowhere does the document explain what ``complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula'' means. For example, Kim Jong Un can easily interpret the language to mean he will only relinquish his nuclear weapons once the United States does the same. After all, history shows us that North Korea interprets the term ``Korean Peninsula'' to include any U.S. nuclear weapon capable of striking North Korea. The loopholes in the agreement, it seems, are big enough to fly nuclear missiles through. By contrast, previous agreements were much more stringent.…”