Rep. Norcross (D-NJ): I'm Optimistic But Cautious About North Korea
*By Alisha Haridasani*
Maintaining diplomatic momentum after the historic meeting Friday between the North Korean leader Kim Jung-un and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea will likely fall on the shoulders of President Trump, who will have his own summit with Kim next month.
“I’m sure Seoul is reaching out to their Washington counterparts and coaching them in how to deal with the North Koreans and how to achieve an outcome where all three parties, to some degree, are at least satisfied with the outcome,” said Andrew Jeong, reporter at the Wall Street Journal in Seoul.
Kim and Moon agreed Friday to rid the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons, a pledge they have made before, and to negotiate a formal end to the Korean War, which was paused in 1953 without a peace treaty. The bold, if not entirely new, statements did not include any details about how the leaders would achieve their goals.
Success, analysts said, would depend on how Trump’s meeting with Kim goes. Announced earlier this month, and scheduled for May, it would be the first meeting between a sitting American president and a North Korean leader. Former President Jimmy Carter met with Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on a visit to North Korea in 1994.
According to Rep. Don Norcross (D-NJ), the president will have to convince North Korea to agree to verification that it is living up to its promises. "North Korea has a history of saying one thing and doing something very different," he said.
North Korea has pledged to abandon its nuclear program several times since 1985, when it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, only to withdraw and backtrack from earlier agreements.
"As President Reagan used to say, trust but we need to verify," said Norcross.
Though much remains to be negotiated, and success is a long way off, Trump said on Twitter that the United States “should be very proud of what is taking place in Korea.” In an [official statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-inter-korean-summit/), the White House press secretary said the administration was “hopeful that talks will achieve progress toward a future of peace and prosperity for the entire Korean Peninsula,” and said the U.S. “appreciates the close coordination with our ally,” South Korea.
North Korea has pledged to abandon its nuclear program several times since 1985, when it signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, only to withdraw and backtrack from earlier agreements.
The dramatic meeting Friday between Kim and Moon took place in the demilitarized zone that divides their two countries as it has since the end of the war. Kim reached across the border, shook Moon’s hand, and then became the first North Korean leader to step foot in South Korea. That symbolic step set the tone for the rest of their seemingly friendly meeting.
If future talks are successful at ending the more than half century of enmity, the people of North Korea stand to benefit most, said Jeong of the Wall Street Journal.
Economic sanctions have crippled the country, and the government’s authoritarian rule under the Kim family has left its citizens on the brink of starvation for years.
“If this peace comes, this could mean that the North has more cash and more capital to spend on its economy,” Jeong said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/congressman-norcross-d-nj-says-the-opioid-crisis-has-killed-too-many-of-his-constituents).
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
