McSally, Biggs laud progress in summit negotiations with North Korea
Jun 13, 2018, 10:35 AM | Updated: 5:22 pm
U.S. President Donald Trump, right, reaches to shakes hands with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un at the Capella resort on Sentosa Island Tuesday, June 12, 2018 in Singapore. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
PHOENIX — President Donald Trump’s summit in Singapore with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un has two Arizona members of Congress feeling better about denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Republican U.S. Reps. Martha McSally and Andy Biggs supported the efforts toward stabilization after Trump and Kim signed a broad agreement in Singapore that contained “security guarantees” for the North.
“It looks like there’s an opportunity for (North Korea) to change their intent,” McSally said Wednesday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.
“The next step is up to Kim — will he allow us to watch them move towards a complete and irreversible and verifiable denuclearization.”
Some in South Korea were worried when the president said after the summit he would cancel military exercises — war games — there. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the games would resume if North Korea showed a lack of good faith.
Trump tweeted earlier that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat and that worries about going to war with that country should be gone.
Biggs told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Chad Benson Show on Tuesday, “I don’t want to see us in a war. … Think about a year ago — the bellicosity on both sides really made everyone nervous here around Congress and, I think, the country. …
“At some point you have to to say, ‘Trump, this is good, I’m glad you’re engaging.'”
McSally added that other methods of persuasion, including diplomacy, economic sanctions and a “willingness, if needed, (for U.S. military) to stop them from having a nuclear weapon … has brought us to this point.”
Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer also had a lot of praise in regard to Trump’s meeting, saying it was “working toward what I consider a permanent and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This is a big deal, this is the beginning. He has done a marvelous job.”
