DEMS/GOP/NORTH KOREA/NUCLEAR/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Lawmakers from both parties, deeply mistrustful of a leader who has brutalized his own country, greeted a joint agreement between the United States and North Korea coolly on Tuesday [6-12-18] , with top Republicans warning President Trump that any final accord on Kim Jong-un’s nuclear program should be submitted to the Senate for ratification. The president’s allies on Capitol Hill said the talks represented a potential breakthrough that could lead to lasting peace with one of the United States’ most dangerous enemies. But even they agreed with more skeptical lawmakers that there was much work to be done. Others, including leading Republican foreign policymakers, said it was unclear what, if anything, had been gained by the United States in exchange for the benefits accrued to Mr. Kim..Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an on-and-off ally of Mr. Trump and one of the Senate’s leading Republican foreign policy hawks, called the talks a good ‘first step’ but little more…Mr. Graham and others insisted that the president would need their signoff on any deal. Senator Mitch Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, said he hoped that it would take the form of a treaty, which would likely make any agreement more durable, but requires the support of two-thirds of the Senate — a very difficult threshold.”
-Nicholas Fandos, “Lawmakers in Both Parties Are Skeptical as They Assess North Korea Meeting,” The New York Times online, June 13, 2018