{ "error": "", "type": "text", "title": "Tim Kaine on North Korea", "slug": "tim-kaine-on-north-korea", "text": "
\u201cRecent provocations by the North Koreans, including the ballistic missile launch and nuclear tests, violate numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions and pose a significant threat to both the United States and our allies in the region. I\u2019m proud to join nearly all of my Senate colleagues in supporting legislation to sanction this rogue regime and give the Obama administration additional tools to confront this growing threat.\u201d [Source<\/a>] Statement While Serving as Senator of Virginia. February 10, 2016 <\/em><\/p>\n *\"Kim Jong Un\u2019s backward calculus has left his country impoverished and almost entirely dependent on China for economic trade. Roughly 90% of North Korea\u2019s foreign trade is with China, which is why China can have significant leverage over North Korea. But disappointingly the track record of China using its leverage to curb North Korean activity is very, very disappointing. We need to continue to pressure China to increase sanctions on North Korea and elevate this issue in bilateral discussions with China. The number of North Korean nuclear weapons could soon approach China\u2019s within the next decade and that is a direct threat to regional stability and global security. [\u2026] China can no longer turn a blind eye to this. As a member of the UN Security Council, China needs to help foster international peace and play the role that an international power on the UN Security Council needs to play. The need to play the role in additionally advancing and pushing for more human rights in North Korea because they have the leverage to do so. We don\u2019t trade with North Korea our leverage is somewhat limited but China with a 90% trade share has that leverage. The good thing about these sanctions is that they will sanction the activities of Chinese companies and entities that are trading with North Korea and that secondary sanction effect, I think, has the ability to work and put pressure on them.\" [Source<\/a>] Senate Speech While Serving as Senator of Virginia. February 10, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou asked the question about how do we deal with a North Korea. I'm on the Foreign Relations Committee. We just did an extensive sanctions package against North Korea. And interestingly enough, Elaine, the U.N. followed and did this -- virtually the same package. Often China will use their veto in the Security Council to veto a package like that. They're starting to get worried about North Korea, too. So they actually supported the sanctions package, even though many of the sanctions are against Chinese firms, Chinese financial institutions. So we're working together with China, and we need to. China's another one of those relationships where it's competitive, it's also challenging, and in times like North Korea, we have to be able to cooperate. Hillary understands that very well. She went once famously to China and stood up at a human rights meeting and looked them in the eye and said, \u2018Women's rights are human rights.\u2019 They didn't want her to say that, but she did. But she's also worked on a lot of diplomatic and important diplomatic deals with China. And that's what it's going to take.\u201d [Source<\/a>] Vice Presidential Debate, Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia<\/em>. October 4, 2016<\/p>",
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