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.