Rubio Campaign Press Release - READ: Marco Rubio Lays Out Detailed Plan to Stand Up to the Lunatic in North Korea

Marco has been warning throughout the presidential campaign that North Korea is a rogue state run by a lunatic with a growing number of nuclear weapons. The Kim regime's January 2016 nuclear test was just the latest reminder of its aggressive, dangerous ambitions. Meanwhile, its government ranks as possibly the world's worst human rights abuser — jailing, torturing, and killing its people with abandon.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton have stood idly by while Kim Jong-un has tortured his people and threatened his neighbors and the United States. When they have engaged on North Korea, they have only offered concession after concession in the hopes of cutting an Iran-style deal that would only empower the regime.  Years of this behavior has allowed North Korea to test multiple nuclear weapons and build ballistic-missile technology capable of hitting the United States. Moreover, North Korea is more of a force for instability in the region, a crucial one with a number of close U.S. allies, than ever before.

This failure must be replaced with a policy of strength and clarity: Stop the giveaways, ratchet up the pressure on North Korea's leaders and their Chinese supporters, back up our allies in the region, restore critical funding to our missile defense programs, and promote human rights and access to outside information within North Korea.

As President, Marco will:

Counter North Korean Aggression

• End the policy of rewarding North Korean provocations and nuclear blackmail with new rounds of concessions;

• Work with allies to disrupt North Korean nuclear and missile proliferation by interdicting ships or aircraft suspected of carrying material related to North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs;

• Impose crushing new sanctions on the North Korean regime, including freezing the overseas assets of the North Korean leadership, sanctioning international entities and individuals that continue to do business with the regime, and disrupting illegal sources of income, from drug smuggling to counterfeiting and illicit arms sales;

• Pressure China to stop propping up the Kim family by demonstrating to Beijing that continuing to do so will result in greater U.S. and allied presence around the peninsula;

• Deter North Korean hacking and cyberattacks against American companies and the government.

Restore North Korea to the State Sponsor of Terrorism List

• Unless it ceases supporting state sponsors of terror like Iran and Syria, including through such entities as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, North Korea would be re-designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism.

Bolster Deterrence

• Rebuild our nuclear deterrent and strengthen U.S. missile defenses and offensive capabilities in the region by coordinating with our allies to deploy the THAAD system to South Korea;

• Reestablish missile defense, especially homeland missile defense, as a national priority by fielding more interceptors, providing additional radar, and leveraging new technologies to intercept the most sophisticated missile threats;

• Enhance cooperation with and among regional allies, such as South Korea and Japan.

Promote Human Rights and Democracy

• Provide support to North Koreans by helping them gain access to the outside world, bolstering counter-information efforts, and sanctioning North Korea for its brazen human rights violations;

• Declassify information about North Korea's apparatus of repression and highlight the specific North Korean leaders involved in human rights abuses;

• Ensure that human rights no longer take a backseat to concerns about North Korea's nuclear program and militarism.

Marco has Taken Time off the Campaign Trail to Push for New Sanctions on North Korea: Read More Here

On Video

Op-Eds and Speeches

Marco Shines a Spotlight on North Korea's Horrors (National Review, April 14, 2014)