During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) asked Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker about supporting North Korean defectors.
00:00so thank you can I just chair chairman may I finish my sentence please thank
00:05you it's my responsibility to overseas to oversee each of the bureaus each of
00:10the regional bureaus and the Bureau for International Organizations and yes over
00:16all of their foreign policy but as I said and I just like to state clearly
00:20for the specifics of the trade engagements I refer you to the Department
00:25of Commerce and also USTR thank you for allowing me to finish my sentence thank
00:29you for answering a paradoxical question of I want to know what you actually do
00:34but I don't want to hear you answer that question that to me is not statement
00:37representative Kim's recognized thank you chairman best thank you for joining us
00:43today I knew under President Trump's first administration you serve as special
00:48assistant to the president and also senior director for the Korean Peninsula at the
00:53National Security Council so I think you understand and agree that Korean
00:58Peninsula remains a focal point of global security as you know North Korea's
01:03continued nuclear ambitions missile provocation cyber attacks and human
01:08rights abuses they pose persistent challenges to the US and our allied
01:13interests so can you talk to me about the lessons that you've learned from your time
01:20in the first Trump administration that will inform the current
01:23administration's approach dealing with North Korea thank you Congresswoman and
01:29thank you for your attention on you as you may recall that we have worked very closely with our
01:37Japanese and South Korean allies on North Korean issues not just them but
01:42others in the region as well that is a major lesson learned and take away from the
01:47first Trump administration that close coordination close cooperation with our allies and partners in the region
01:53is really one of the most effective ways we can meet the threat deter the
01:59threat and continue to strategize on a way forward the president also very much
02:05engaged in the Indo-Pacific region and the North Koreans glowing growing nuclear and
02:13missile program remain a concern of ours not just that but also their engagement and
02:18cooperation with Russia North Korea has really become a country with you know
02:25nuclear weapons it is a nuclear state so we have to recognize it as such it's
02:29definitely different than what we know North Korea to be even 20 30 years ago and
02:34especially during the Trump administration's first term so I hope that we can
02:40continue to talk about North Korea in a sense that we need a complete and secure civic a
02:47complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization of North Korea so can
02:52you talk to us about how does the America first agenda define or prioritize this
02:58objective thank you Congresswoman for that question the president uses all
03:06available to tools on each of these problem set issues so I won't speak in
03:12in specific details about our perhaps our future approach to North Korea but I can assure you that we're very concerned about the nuclear capability their missile capability and the threat and the destabilizing effect that can have on the region
03:32so we're going to talk about maybe not specifically but some diplomatic or economic
03:36strategies under consideration such as like America first opportunity fund to move
03:42closer to reaching that goal thank you Congresswoman for that for your question the
03:49America first opportunities fund will be will be able to use that for a number of
03:55different issues it'll be a consolidated fund that whether we're using it for foreign
04:00assistance disaster assistance really it's going to be a very flexible and
04:07multi-purpose fund there may be opportunities to use it on this issue what about when you
04:12talk about multi-purpose areas can you also allocate that fund for other
04:20activities to counter North Korea's illicit activities and support defector communities or
04:25expose human rights violations those are really important policy priorities of mine as well as to
04:32this community as well well very much paying attention to those to those issues as well and
04:37can take in that into consideration while we're looking at applying the fund going forward thanks you know as I
04:43understand you as the undersecretary for political affairs you oversee the
04:48department's six regional bureaus covering virtually all foreign policy matters that is
04:54considered by the State Department and at times the undersecretary will elevate a
04:58high-profile issue from a regional assistant secretary and lead on the matter directly so
05:04I think this what this happened under President Bush and your predecessor Ambassador Nick Burns led on
05:12Iran policy for the department so do you intend to similarly lead on China policy during your tenure and talk about what that might
05:22look like thank you ma'am well I just like to reiterate I serve at the pleasure of the
05:27president and also the pleasure of the secretary I work very closely with Secretary Rubio and with Deputy
05:34Secretary Landau on issues that is span around the world so I don't I really don't have anything to
05:44say in terms of specific target issues except for that as you noted my responsibilities are global and I'm here to
05:52support the secretary and the deputy secretary as we address each of those issues thank you
05:57well thank you I yield back chairman recognize
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