U.S. Senator-elect Andy Kim (D-NJ) poses in his office at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Korean American Sen.-elect Andy Kim stressed the need Thursday to make sure that President-elect Donald Trump’s “America First” policy does not mean “America only,” as he expressed concerns over some of Trump’s personnel choices.
Kim, the first Korean American elected to the upper chamber of Congress, made the remarks, underscoring his position against an “isolationist” foreign policy and vowing to play a role to reinforce the relationship between South Korea and the United States.
“(What) I will say first is we have to make sure we don’t have an isolationist policy in the United States,” he told Yonhap News Agency after attending a gala event hosted by the Council of Korean Americans.
“And I am concerned by some of the people that have been named (by Trump) that these are people that don’t respect coalitions, they don’t respect alliances, and that they are not going to respect the U.S.-Korea relationship in the way that it needs to,” he added.
He pointed out that he needs to be careful to comment on the matter as he will be voting on Trump’s nominations after he takes office as a senator.
“I am not going to go into specifics right now, but like you know, suffice to say I have concerns … about what kind of foreign policy they will be pushing,” he said.
“We need to make sure that America First policy that they keep talking about … it does not mean America only, and then we turn our backs on our allies.”
Kim also stressed that as a senator, he will have a “role” for America’s alliances.
“I do have a role in that. I mean it’s in the Constitution,” he said.
“I hope that I can play a positive role to try to strengthen the U.S.-South Korea relationship, U.S. efforts around Asia and around the country (and) around the world. I will hopefully keep that up.”
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