[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 13, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3864-S3865]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TRUMP-KIM SUMMIT

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today briefly to thank President 
Trump. I want to thank him for our summit with North Korea in 
Singapore.
  Only Nixon could go to China, and I think only Trump could go to 
North Korea. I understand that he went to Singapore, but you get the 
point. It is a beginning. It is a baby step, but it was an important 
step, and I want to thank President Trump for taking it.
  Certainly, there is nothing in the history of Kim Jong Un or his 
father or his grandfather that would cause us to be optimistic. So I 
think the President and all Americans are entering into this discourse 
with eyes wide open.
  We also know that Kim Jong Un is not coming to the table out of the 
goodness of his heart. President Trump and the U.S. Congress have hit 
him with sanctions, and we have hit him so hard that he is coughing up 
bones. I hate to do that to the people of North Korea, but we had no 
choice.
  I think Kim Jong Un is coming to the table also because he 
understands that, for the first time in a long time, America means what 
it says and a military option is on the table. He saw what happened to 
Assad in Syria, not once but twice.
  So we enter into this discourse with North Korea, as I said, with 
eyes wide open. An old comedian once said that sincerity is everything. 
Fake that, and you got it made.
  Well, we don't know whether Kim Jong Un is sincere yet. We will 
probably find out when the President asks

[[Page S3865]]

for authority to send in inspectors from America to inventory Kim Jong 
Un's nuclear arsenal, his nuclear technology, and his missile 
technology. If the answer is ``no, we can't do that,'' or if Kim Jong 
Un takes evasive measures to try to hide his weaponry, then, we will 
know, but we will have tried.
  I want to thank President Trump today on behalf of all Americans who 
believe in peace for the successful start of what I hope will be a 
successful summit and relationship with North Korea.
  Thank you, President Trump.
  I yield the floor.

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