FACT CHECK: McNerney, Pombo on North Korea

Bush, Pombo Failed to Prevent Nuclear Weapons Development

The Jerry McNerney for Congress campaign responded to a corrupt incumbent's desperate and dishonest television advertisement. Afraid to defend the Bush/Pombo record on North Korea, Pombo is distorting McNerney's comments in a new television ad.

 

"For years, Richard Pombo ignored North Korea's nuclear weapons program." said McNerney communications director Yoni Cohen. "Pombo made time to visit the Northern Mariana Islands, but did not consider it important to go on Congressional fact-finding missions to the Korean Peninsula. On Pombo's watch, North Korea developed and tested a nuclear weapon. Unlike Pombo, Jerry McNerney will put America's national security interests ahead of lobbyists' travel requests."

 

CLAIM: "Jerry McNerney wanted our military to look the other way while North Korea developed nuclear weapons." (Pombo TV Ad, "Veterans").

 

FACT: George Bush and Richard Pombo looked the other way while North Korea developed and tested a nuclear weapon. The diplomatic, economic and military actions Bush and Pombo took failed to prevent North Korea from ejecting IAEA inspectors, withdrawing from the NPT, or producing enough plutonium to build four to six additional nuclear weapons.

 

Jerry McNerney believes North Korea is a dangerous threat and opposes North Korea's nuclear weapons program. McNerney wants the United States to "contain North Korea's nuclear program with diplomacy and economic sanctions, [but] would not rule out military options." (Tracy Press, 10/17/06).

 

Ironically, neither George Bush nor Richard Pombo supports the measure Pombo has criticized McNerney for supposedly opposing in an internet questionnaire. Neither Bush nor Pombo is currently pressing for the United States to "use military force to dismantle the North Korea nuclear weapons program."