Sen. Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that “history will not look kindly” on the U.S. if it ignores the military threat posed by North Korea and urged President Barack Obama to "stand by our allies in the region."
“The escalation of rhetoric from North Korea is dangerous and destabilizing,” the Florida Republican, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a potential 2016 presidential contender, said in
a statement released by his office.
He urged the Obama administration to “stand by our allies in the region, especially South Korea, during this difficult time” and to make sure that Pyongyang realizes that its ongoing threats of war “will only further isolate North Korea from the rest of the world and will not be rewarded by outreach and engagement.”
Rubio also called on the administration to “remember that our concerns with North Korea extend well beyond the country’s nuclear program,” adding 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 continued.
Rubio also asked the White House to “relist North Korea as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,” given its ongoing support to “state sponsors Iran and Syria, including through terrorist entities such as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.” The State Department removed North Korea from the 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.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.