Rubio: 'History Will Not Look Kindly' on Mistakes Dealing with North Korea

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warned “history will not look kindly” on a country that not only ignores the threat posed by North Korea but its humanitarian crisis.

“The escalation of rhetoric from North Korea is dangerous and destabilizing.  I urge the Obama administration to continue to stand by our allies in the region, especially South Korea, during this difficult time and ensure that Pyongyang realizes that threats will only further isolate North Korea from the rest of the world and will not be rewarded by outreach and engagement, as has far too often been the case in the past,” Rubio, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a potential 2016 contender, said today.

“We must remember that our concerns with North Korea extend well beyond the country’s nuclear program. The regime keeps hundreds of thousands of its citizens in gulag-style concentration camps and expands its military complex while its people are left to starve. The real solution to this challenge will come only once all concerned parties realize that this odious regime is the problem and join the United States in pressuring China to change its policy of supporting Pyongyang,” he said.

Rubio said he’s concerned about nuclear cooperation between Iran and North Korea and called on the administration “to explore every option to prevent this activity, including the use of its authorities to designate additional North Korean entities and international financial institutions that enable North Korea to provide assistance to Syria and Iran and that host regime assets.”

“I also call on the Obama administration to relist North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, given North Korea’s ongoing support to state sponsors Iran and Syria, including through terrorist entities such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps,” he added.

Lawmakers called for the relisting throughout Obama’s first term to no avail. The country was removed from the State Department list in mid-2008.

“History will not look kindly upon us if we do not learn the lessons of our past mistakes on North Korea and do nothing to change the status quo,” Rubio said.