Republican Party platform calls N. Korea 'Kim family's slave state'

CLEVELAND/WASHINGTON, July 19 (Yonhap) -- The U.S. Republican Party has adopted its new policy platform, calling for change in North Korea that it denounced as the "Kim family's slave state" and pledging to work toward ending the communist nation's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea was the first issue mentioned in the Asia Pacific part of the platform adopted on Monday, the opening day of the party's national convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in an indication of the significance the party attaches to the problem.

"We are a Pacific nation with economic, military, and cultural ties to all the countries of the oceanic rim and treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand. With them, we look toward the establishment of human rights for the people of North Korea," the platform said.

"We urge the government of China to recognize the inevitability of change in the Kim family's slave state and, for everyone's safety against nuclear disaster, to hasten positive change on the Korean peninsula," it said of the regime of Kim Jong-un.

It also said that the U.S. will "continue to demand the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program with full accounting of its proliferation activities," and pledged to "counter any threats from the North Korean regime."

Highlighting electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats, the platform said the North has nuclear missiles.

"A single nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over this country would collapse our electrical grid and other critical infrastructure and endanger the lives of millions. With North Korea in possession of nuclear missiles and Iran close to having them, an EMP is no longer a theoretical concern -- it is a real threat," it said.

But the platform did not include controversial proposals by its presidential candidate Donald Trump, such as his demand that U.S. allies, such as South Korea and Japan, should pay more for American defense support or the U.S. should withdraw troops from the countries.

jschang@yna.co.kr
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