2020 presidential candidates on North Korea

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Presidential election
Donald Trump

Joe Biden

Howie Hawkins

Jo Jorgensen

This page includes statements from the 2020 presidential candidates on North Korea. These statements were compiled from each candidate's official campaign website, editorials, speeches, and interviews. Click the following links for policy statements about related issues: foreign policy, Russia, Middle East and North Africa, and South and Central America.

The candidates featured on this page are the 2020 presidential nominees from the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green parties.

Donald Trump
Joe Biden
Howie Hawkins
Jo Jorgensen

North Korea

Republican candidates

Donald Trump

Donald Trump's campaign website says, "President Trump is putting maximum pressure on North Korea to denuclearize. In June 2019, President Trump became the first sitting U.S. President to enter North Korea,as he held a historic meeting with Kim Jong Un at the DMZ. President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met on June 12, 2018, in Singapore where the two leaders discussed steps towards denuclearizing the Korean peninsula. The Treasury Department has implemented an array of sanctions on North Korean individuals and entities as part of the Maximum Pressure Campaign. Under President Trump’s leadership, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed new sanctions on North Korea for their continued aggressive behavior." ^{[source, as of 2020-06-22]}

Mark Sanford

Mark Sanford's campaign website does not include a position on North Korea.

His website says about foreign policy, "I believe in Teddy Roosevelt's notion of speaking softly, but carrying a big stick. To do this, we must maintain a strong economy, because economic supremacy has always been the precursor to military supremacy. Among other things, this once again ties back to our own debt as a threat to our ability to protect power and maintain our place in the world." ^{[source, as of 2019-09-10]}

Joe Walsh

Joe Walsh's campaign website does not include a statement outlining his position on North Korea.

Joe Walsh's campaign website does not include a statement outlining his position on North Korea. In an interview on MSNBC, Joe Walsh said, "We've got a president right now who gives a bear-hug, a man hug to Putin and Kim Jong-un and he stiff-arms our allies. I think we need to flip that around a little bit...When you and I were little boys, Russia was the enemy, our own FBI, they were the good guys. Donald Trump has flipped this around. He's disloyal. This will be one of the most dangerous long-term impacts of the Trump administration, how they have declared war on our own intelligence community." When asked whether he felt Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven, Walsh continued, "No, and I still think Putin must have something on him. It does not explain Donald Trump's subservient behavior." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-26]}

Bill Weld

Bill Weld criticized the Trump administration's North Korean policy in an interview. He said, "I think his most outrageous performance has been not domestic, but international, going out of his way to insult our allies, conducting a mock bromance with a cold-blooded murderer in North Korea, saying that, “I, Donald Trump, have fallen in love with the kid. What a strong kid. He [Kim Jong Un] iced his own uncle. Hell, he iced his brother. What a strong guy,” and cozying up to dictators and calling our allies weak and stupid." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-28]}

Democratic candidates

Joe Biden

Joe Biden's presidential camapign website says, "In North Korea, President Biden will empower our negotiators and jump start a sustained, coordinated campaign with our allies and others, including China, to advance our shared objective of a denuclearized North Korea." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-20]}

Michael Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg's campaign website does not include a statement on North Korea.

Bloomberg's website says of foreign policy, "Mike has built global coalitions of mayors to share strategies and spread proven solutions to cities around the world. As a philanthropist, he has deepened these efforts, working with local leaders and heads of state to implement ambitious agendas that cover everything from public health to climate change. As president, Mike will restore global respect to the White House. Under the Bloomberg administration, the world will know it can work in good faith with the United States, because it has already seen and experienced Mike’s leadership firsthand." ^{[source, as of 2019-12-11]}

Cory Booker

In a response to a questionnaire sent by the Council on Foreign Relations, Booker said, "Our goal has to be the full denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. A nuclear North Korea is among our greatest national security threats and we must use every tool available to pursue peaceful denuclearization. I would work closely with our allies to develop and execute a thoughtful strategy to denuclearize the peninsula and address international concerns with the DPRK’s missile program and proliferation activities." ^{[source, as of 2019-07-30]}

Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg's campaign website says, "For decades, the United States and our allies have successfully deterred North Korean use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, it is also in the interest of regional security to advance peace on the Korean Peninsula. So rather than a zero-sum insistence on full and complete denuclearization before any peace is possible, we can recognize that the two processes can be mutually reinforcing, with small steps leading to bigger ones. You will not see me exchanging love letters on White House letterhead with a brutal dictator who starves and murders his own people. But you will see my administration work to create the conditions that would make it possible to welcome North Korea into the international community. But until we can change the present dynamic–until there are good-faith and verifiable reversals in North Korea’s nuclear program–sanctions must remain in place." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-21]}

Julián Castro

Julián Castro's campaign website did not include positions on North Korea. Castro said the following about foreign policy in an interview with ABC, "I believe that today the greatest threat to our national security is the fact that this president is damaging the relationships we’ve had in place in the post-World War II era, whether it’s NATO or other alliances with individual countries, that have kept us safer. The first thing that I would do if I were president with regard to our relationships around the world is to strengthen them, because those alliances can help keep us safe." ^{[source, as of 2019-01-06]}

Tulsi Gabbard

Tulsi Gabbard tweeted, "North Korea will look at Trump's actions, not empty promises. We can't expect Kim to believe that we won't overthrow him if he gives up his nukes, when he sees us threaten to carry out regime-change war in Iran and Venezuela." ^{[source, as of 2019-02-26]}

Kamala D. Harris

Kamala Harris' campaign website says, "Whether it’s the nuclear threat of North Korea and Iran, chaos and oppression in Venezuela, or confronting China’s unfair trade practices, the U.S. is most effective at confronting global challenges when we work in lockstep with our partners." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-20]}

Amy Klobuchar

When she was asked about President Trump's meetings with Kim Jong-un in an interview on CNN, Amy Klobuchar said, "I don't think we know if it works until there's results and we've seen a history here especially in this case where Donald Trump announces the summit and nothing really comes out of it. Of course, as a country, we want this to work. We want to see a denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, a reduction of these missiles, but it's not as easy as just going and, you know, bringing a hot dish over the fence to the dictator next door. This is a ruthless dictator and when you go forward, you have to have clear focus and a clear mission and clear goals and that has been our problem so far. The president will meet with him, that's fine, it's always good to talk to people when you're dealing with something so important as nuclear weapons, but then we have no clear path and nothing comes out of it, and so I hope that will change. I would think working with our allies would make it better, but let's be honest here, in May they were launching missiles into the sea in violation of a U.N. resolution." ^{[source, as of 2019-06-30]}

Beto O'Rourke

Beto O'Rourke's campaign website says, "Beto believes President Trump’s lack of coherent strategy with North Korea has strengthened Kim Jong-Un and weakened American interests."

O'Rourke's website proposes the following: "Protect the United States and our service members on the Korean peninsula from Kim’s aggression by fortifying sanctions against North Korea and laying the foundation for serious negotiations around denuclearization. Work with South Korea, Japan, and our allies to embrace diplomacy with North Korea with the goal of denuclearization, while continuing to economically isolate Kim—no longer granting his regime legitimacy without demonstrated progress on weapons reduction and human rights." ^{[source, as of 2019-08-27]}

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders said in response to a Council on Foreign Relations questionnaire, "Every step we take to reduce North Korea’s nuclear force, to open it up to inspections, to end the 70-year-old Korean War and to encourage peaceful relations between the Koreas and the United States increases the chances of complete denuclearization of the peninsula. Peace and nuclear disarmament must proceed in parallel, in close consultations with our South Korean ally. I will work to negotiate a step-by-step process to roll back North Korea’s nuclear program, build a new peace and security regime on the peninsula and work towards the eventual elimination of all North Korean nuclear weapons." ^{[source, as of 2019-09-30]}

Thomas Steyer

Tom Steyer's campaign website does not include a position on North Korea.

His website says about international agreements in the context of climate change, "Join the international Powering Past Coal Alliance, work to end global finance for coal-fired power plants, and strengthen and improve accountability procedures for enforcing human rights and environmental requirements for projects that receive funding through the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and other international finance mechanisms. Lead a global plan to help prevent, address, and reduce climate-related disasters, including supporting pre-disaster resilience planning and investment, and helping protect the human rights of the growing number of people displaced by these disasters domestically and globally." ^{[source, as of 2019-09-10]}

Elizabeth Warren

In response to a Council on Foreign Relations questionnaire, Elizabeth Warren said, "Our goal should be the full elimination of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. But while we work toward that goal, we must reduce the threat now. We need serious, realistic negotiations to address this threat. As a first step, and in coordination with our partners and allies, I would be prepared to consider partial, limited sanctions relief in return for a strong, verifiable agreement that keeps North Korea from expanding its arsenal or proliferating to other countries. An interim agreement would open the door to negotiations to reduce North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, control conventional weapons, and stop the regime’s crimes against humanity. That’s not only an imperative for our national security, it is the only credible path toward denuclearization." ^{[source, as of 2019-09-30]}

Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang tweeted, "Anything that improves the political climate on the Korean peninsula and engages North Korea on its nuclear program is a good thing." ^{[source, as of 2019-06-30]}

Green candidates

Howie Hawkins

Howie Hawkins' campaign website mentions North Korea in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. It says, "Instead of leading an internationally coordinated response, let alone a nationally coordinated response, Trump will not provide sanctions relief for countries like Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela that need immediate trade and aid for supplies to fight the coronavirus pandemic." ^{[source, as of 2020-04-06]}

Libertarian candidates

Jo Jorgensen

Jo Jorgensen's campaign website says the U.S. should not conduct military strikes against North Korea in order to destroy their long-range missile and nuclear weapons capabilities. ^{[source, as of 2020-07-28]}

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Footnotes