Ted Poe: “Ending the nuclear threat in North Korea is within our reach. The maximum-pressure campaign has demonstrated some clear…”

“Ending the nuclear threat in North Korea is within our reach. The maximum-pressure campaign has demonstrated some clear successes in pushing North Korea to the negotiating table and pausing its nuclear and missile tests. This is serious progress, and if we maintain our focus on disarming Kim Jong-un, we can end this horrific danger. President Trump made history as the first United States President to meet with the leader of North Korea. I applaud President Trump for prioritizing the North Korean challenge, which has major global implications beyond just our own security. The Singapore Summit is the first step toward the complete denuclearization of the North Korean peninsula. North Korea has pledged their commitment to work toward this agreement. President Trump also reached an agreement to complete the recovery of United States' Korean war dead in the Korean Peninsula. This is, without a doubt, historic progress. I urge the White House to stand firm on ``complete, verifiable, and irreversible'' disarmament of North Korea. While this progress is promising, we must proceed with caution. This is not the first time the United States has attempted negotiations with this tyrannical state. In the aftermath of these preliminary negotiations, many questions do remain. Will China and Russia hold firm on their commitments of applying sanctions to North Korea? China and Russia have continuously undermined our efforts against a range of global bad actors.…”