[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NORTH KOREA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on North Korea, last night, we received 
news that North Korea has been continuing work at a missile facility 
north of its capital. Previous satellite images have shown work ongoing 
at two other missile sites in the country.
  Clearly, North Korea is not suspending, let alone winding down, its 
nuclear missile programs. Yet, shortly after President Trump met with 
Chairman Kim in Singapore, President Trump said North Korea was ``no 
longer a nuclear threat'' to the United States. The juxtaposition of 
President Trump's rhetoric and the facts on the ground are jarring. It 
would be funny if it wasn't so sad.
  President Trump explains out of nowhere that the nuclear threat is 
over, and North Korea is building more missiles that reportedly can 
reach all of the United States instead of just the West Coast. North 
Korea's nuclear program remains a grave threat to the region and the 
United States. President Trump can't wish it away. He can't place 
fantasy next to reality. North Korea will not give up its nuclear 
program simply because President Trump wants them to. Now, we are all 
rooting for diplomacy to succeed, but if President Trump is going to 
make progress toward the complete, verifiable, and irreversible 
denuclearization of North Korea, he needs to grapple with the reality 
of the situation, not be in a dream world where he thinks his rhetoric 
is reality, when it doesn't match the dangerous reality on the ground.

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