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Key Republican calls US policy on N. Korea ‘abject failure’

October 20, 2015
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, listens to Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., center, speak to reporters. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, right, listens to Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., center, speak to reporters. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says U.S. policy on North Korea for the past several decades has been an “abject failure.”

Republican Sen. Bob Corker told a hearing Tuesday that North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs continue to advance and its people are suffering at the hands of the regime of leader Kim Jong-un.

Corker says there’s no “silver bullet” but he wants to work with Republicans and Democrats in Congress to address the North Korean threat.

Last week, President Barack Obama said the U.S. is willing to negotiate with the North, as it has with Iran, but Pyongyang must be willing to discuss giving up its nuclear ambitions.