Markey touts legislation to address North Korea threat

With the United Nations Security Council set to discuss what to do about North Korea's most recent missile launch, Sen. Edward Markey is calling on the group to toughen sanctions against the regime, including a total embargo on imports of oil to North Korea.

Markey is also working to put together legislation that would ratchet up sanctions against North Korea and its enablers, and guide the United States in direct negotiations with the North Korean regime as the kingdom continues its provocation of America and its allies, his office said.

"We must exhaust every available peaceful option before President (Donald) Trump puts 'all options on the table' and considers launching a preventive war," Markey said in a statement. "Now is the time for the United Nations Security Council to pass, and the United States, China, Russia, and the entire community of nations to enforce, tough new sanctions."

Markey called for the UN Security Council, which is expected to meet Tuesday, to stop the import of all oil products to North Korea, require that all existing business partnerships between North Korea the rest of the world be dissolved, cut off the export of "slave labor" from North Korea to other countries, bar textile exports from North Korea and prohibit the import of any luxury goods into North Korea.

On Monday, North Korea launched ballistic missiles over Japan amid what Markey's office said are "new indications that North Korea may be preparing for its sixth nuclear test."

Since leader Kim Jong Un's grandfather ruled the country, North Korea has aspired to develop nuclear weapons capable of striking the American mainland.

"There is no military solution for a North Korea with nuclear weapons, so we must immediately and directly negotiate with Pyongyang for agreement to refrain from nuclear and ballistic missile testing in exchange for confidence-building measures from the United States to reassure the North Korean government that our military forces in the region are there only to deter and defend, not to attack North Korea," Markey said in a statement earlier Tuesday, denouncing Monday's missile launch.

Markey serves as the top Democrat on the East Asia Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and last week returned from leading a Congressional delegation to Korea, Japan, and the China-North Korea border.

During the 10-day trip, Markey met with Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in, visited the Demilitarized Zone along the 38th parallel to meet with service members and staff, and toured a river crossing at the North Korea-China border where he was briefed by Chinese government officials who run the border crossing.

He is working with his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations and Banking committees to develop legislative authorization for the Trump administration to pursue "a bold new strategy of sharply intensified economic pressure and resolute military defense and deterrence in undivided alliance with South Korea and Japan," Markey's office said.

"We'll see, we'll see," President Donald Trump said Tuesday morning when a reporter asked what he would do about North Korea, according to a pool report.

In an early morning statement Tuesday, Trump said, "The world has received North Korea's latest message loud and clear: this regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors, for all members of the United Nations, and for minimum standards of acceptable international behavior. Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime's isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table."

U.S. Rep. William Keating, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, said in a statement Tuesday that he supported a package that included sanctions against North Korea but has not seen the Trump administration "move forward in a deliberate and focused manner" beyond that.

"Given the military and economic costs of nuclear arms races and war -- not to mention the most important issue: the loss of human lives -- all world leaders should be doing everything in their power to deescalate the growing threat from North Korea. Addressing these issues takes strong and committed leadership not diplomacy by social media," Keating said in the statement.

Earlier this month, Markey accused Trump of engaging in "escalatory, reckless and downright scary rhetoric with North Korea" that he said heightened the risk of the nuclear states making a miscalculation.

Trump has threatened "fire and fury" in response to North Korea's advancement of intercontinental ballistic missiles potentially capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, and said the military was "locked and loaded" after North Korea threatened the territory of Guam.

"As long as President Trump has a Twitter account, we need a nuclear no-first-use policy," Markey said earlier this month.


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