{"id":31307,"date":"2018-06-15T07:56:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T15:56:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=31307"},"modified":"2018-06-15T07:56:42","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T15:56:42","slug":"rep-ro-khanna-says-fellow-democrats-should-support-diplomacy-with-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/15\/rep-ro-khanna-says-fellow-democrats-should-support-diplomacy-with-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Ro Khanna Says Fellow Democrats Should Support Diplomacy With North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), joined by 14 fellow Democratic United States House of Representatives members, sent a letter<\/a> to President Donald Trump supporting Trump pursuing diplomacy and \u201cincremental progress\u201d with North Korea. The letter also expresses concern about efforts toward peace being hindered by people – both Republican and Democrat, and both inside and outside the Trump administration – seeking \u201cto scuttle progress by attempting to limit the parameters of the talks, including by insisting on full and immediate denuclearization or other unrealistic commitments by North Korea at an early date.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Khanna letter contrasts with a letter<\/a> seven US Senate Democrats sent Trump last week that argues several major North Korean concessions should be required in any deal. The signers of that earlier letter include two top Democratic leaders in the Senate – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) – as well as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Bob Menendez (D-NJ).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Interviewed Tuesday at Democracy Now, Khanna discussed in more detail his concerns about some members of his own party seeking to prevent diplomatic steps in regard to North Korea. Addressing fellow Democrats\u2019 criticism of Trump meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un, Khanna states: <\/p>\n

Imagine if it weren\u2019t Donald Trump there but if it were Barack Obama there having that kind of breakthrough. I think there would be a reaction from almost every progressive Democrat cheering that on.<\/i><\/p>\n

Further, the criticism by Democrats of engaging in the diplomatic discussion, suggest Khanna, will tarnish Democrats\u2019 reputation. In particular, Khanna notes \u201cDemocrats risk looking like we\u2019re being excessively partisan by attacking the president from the right\u201d in regard to a meeting Americans will view as \u201ca constructive step and a success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khanna describes the letter Schumer and other Democratic senators sent Trump as \u201cbasically parroting the talking points of\u201d Trump\u2019s National Security Advisor John Bolton that the US should not engage in any diplomacy with or make any concessions to North Korea unless North Korea undergoes \u201ccomplete denuclearization.\u201d This approach, argues Khanna, \u201cis not realistic.\u201d Instead, says Khanna, an \u201cincremental approach\u201d is needed, including possible steps on the US side in regard to military exercises near North Korea and on the North Korea side in regard to nuclear testing.<\/p>\n

Watch Khanna\u2019s interview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), joined by 14 fellow Democratic United States House of Representatives members, sent a letter to President Donald Trump supporting Trump pursuing diplomacy and \u201cincremental progress\u201d with North Korea. The letter also expresses concern about efforts toward peace being hindered by people – both Republican and Democrat, and both inside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-31307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31307"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31309,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31307\/revisions\/31309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31307"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=31307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}