McConnell: US Must Restore 'Maximum Pressure' if NKorea Balks

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he supported the goals set out in President Donald Trump's joint statement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but said Washington must be prepared to respond if Pyongyang does not follow through.

"If North Korea does not prove willing to follow through, we and our allies must be prepared to restore the policy of maximum pressure," McConnell said in remarks opening the Senate session.

McConnell called the agreement a "historic first step" with much left to do.

"The goal of the United States is the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," McConnell said.