WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement Tuesday after South Korea announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said he is willing to enter into nuclear negotiations:
“President Moon's efforts, backed up by the leverage of additional economic and military pressure, have demonstrated that there is a narrow, diplomatic pathway forward for peace, stability, and a denuclearized Korean Peninsula. Unfortunately, President’s Trump’s inconsistent approach to diplomacy while North Korea has continued to make significant progress with their nuclear program risks undermining this potential path.
“While I have few illusions about the regime in Pyongyang given their long track record of deceitful negotiations, I hope that President Trump will be strategic enough to utilize this current opening by fully engaging the United States in clear-eyed and tough-minded constructive diplomacy. This of course would be a profound deviation from Trump’s approach to this crisis, which has been characterized thus far by wild threats and empty bluster.
“It's time to fully test North Korea's intensions to avoid a nuclear disaster.”
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