Ed Markey: “I come to the floor to share my deep concern over the Trump administration's approach to North Korea. I thank the…”

“I come to the floor to share my deep concern over the Trump administration's approach to North Korea. I thank the Senator from New Jersey, the leader of the Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee, for asking the Members to come out here to speak to the Trump administration's foreign policy. North Korea is a serious and ever-worsening threat to its people, to our allies and partners in the region, and to the United States. Unfortunately, the Trump administration has mismanaged our North Korea policy, and the potential consequences of failure are too great to ignore. North Korea may have bent over backward to appear conciliatory during the Winter Olympics and through its offers of talks with South Korea and the United States, but Kim Jong Un has not stopped his dangerous activities--far from it. While the North Korean regime is all smiles and open arms, its malign behavior continues. Its engineers race to perfect a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile. North Korean laborers around the world--modern-day indentured servants--send paychecks home to the regime to help fund its illicit military programs. Illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products continue. North Korea's army of cyber warriors grows more capable, and the Kim regime's thugs make no efforts to scale back rampant human rights abuses. However, President Trump's approach to date threatens to make an already bad situation even worse.…”