Amy Klobuchar on Foreign Policy

When North Korea crosses line, there have to be consequences

KLOBUCHAR: As a prosecutor, I know that when people cross a line, there's got to be consequences. And in foreign affairs, it's the same thing. I believe these sanctions are incredibly important; we can't have North Korea begin to be some kind of weapons factory.

Q: If the North Koreans ignore the sanctions, what do we do?

KLOBUCHAR: We have to keep ratcheting things up. We have to keep working with our partners. But one of the things that went wrong here is that these multilateral discussions broke down, North Korea walked away from the table, and I believe we have to keep talking. It's good that China's part of this, but if it's moving in the right direction and if we believe it's in our national security interests, we should be talking to them directly. I mean, even during the Cold War we kept talking to Russia. And so the discussions are important, and we need to keep the diplomatic pressure on.

Acknowledge the Armenian Genocide of the early 1900s.

• WHEREAS the Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, and which succeeded in the elimination of more than 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland;
• WHEREAS, on May 24, 1915, the Allied Powers issued the joint statement of England, France, and Russia that explicitly charged, for the first time ever, another government of committing "a crime against humanity";
• WHEREAS, despite the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide, the failure of the domestic and international authorities to punish those responsible for the Armenian Genocide is a reason why similar genocides have recurred and may recur in the future, and that a just resolution will help prevent future genocides:
• NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Senate calls on the President, in the President's annual message commemorating the Armenian Genocide, to accurately characterize the systematic annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide and to recall the proud history of US intervention in opposition to the Armenian Genocide.