ally, i also feel the shock and grief of mr. warmbier's family and american citizens myself that have been caused by the brutalities of north korea. i feel a sense of responsibility myself that an unforeseen parting with mr. warmbier should not mean the loss of everything to his family. under no circumstances should the value of family and human rights be tarnished. together with you, i will never cease in my pursuit to preserve the values that we all cherish. to safeguard american citizens, including the u.s. military personnel, as well as my own people on the korean soil, if not for anything else, there must be a solution to the north korean nuclear quagmire. as i stand before you today, i feel more resolute than ever before, and once again i sincerely thank you for your time today. [applause] john: ladies and gentlemen, we have -- i know everybody here wants to ask a question. but we don't have the time. the president's here a very short period. so, i have taken the privilege -- i'm not even letting myself ask a question. but

warmbier. i thank president moon for expressing his condolences on the travesty of otto's death. our thoughts and prayers remain with his wonderful family. the era of strategic patience with the north korean regime has failed. many years that it's failed. the era of strategic patiencefr. we're working closely with south korea and japan, as well as and world on aound the range of diplomatic and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as north korea. the united states calls on other regional powers and all responsible nations to join us in implementing sanctions and demanding that the north korean regime choose a better path and do it quickly, and a different feature for -- future for its long-suffering people. our goal is peace, stability and prosperity for the region. but the united states will defend itself, always will defend itself. we will always defend our allies. as part of that commitment, we ensureking together to fair burden sharing ensure fa

warmbier. warm and i thank president moon for expressing his condolences know what you on the travesty of otto's death. a our thoughts and prayers remain with his wonderful family. you the year of strategic patience, with the north korean regime, has failed. many years and it's failed. bravely and frankly, that patience is over. we're working closely with south you korea and japan, as well as and will partners around the will partners around the you world, on a range of diplomatic, and security and economic measures to protect our allies and our own citizens from this menace known as north korea. known as a menace known as north korea. united the united states calls on other regional powers and all a and responsible nations to join us in implementing an join us in implementing sanctions and demanding that the north korean regime choose a better path and do it quickly, and and a different future for as long its long-suffering people. now go our goal is peace, and stability, and prosperity is for

we didn't know that at the time but certainly in the meeting we raised not only mr. otto warmbier but the other three american detainees and pointed out that they were on trumped up charges, excessive punishments and if north korea wanted to improve the atmosphere for any kind of negotiations, that releasing them would certainly improve the atmosphere. >> did they appear open to that in. >> i think they took it on board, but it didn't seem to gain any traction. >> okay. bruce klinger, thank you so much. happy fourth of july to you. >>> coming up next, why vladimir putin and not president trump may be the one bringing up election meddling in this highly anticipated face-to-face. hear why. >>> also, more than 40 states now defying president trump's request for voter information in his controversial quest to investigate fraud. is this over before it even begins? >>> and at one point, republicans were begging him to run for president. thinking he was the next star of the party and now, chris christie, sunbathing with a 15% approval rating. what happened to his career? st

. >> thank you, mr. chairman. secretary sullivan, you know how i feel about you. i appreciate the proactive approach you took on getting ot ot otto warmbier home. i appreciate you coming to his funeral. i know the reorganization was a topic of discussion and i want to talk to you about that as it relates to the global engagement center. as you know it is something i feel strongly about. in 2017 as a senate and house in the national defense authorization act asked the global engagement center to take on additional responsibilities, specifically with regard toinformation coming from countries intended to destabilize democracies, undermine some of our basic values and institutions. russia and china come to mind. gc also has an important role, as you know, in providing the counternarrative and pushing back against islamic extremism. so my question for you, is there an ability to keep some of these important entities like the global engagement center specifically from being weakened by a hiring freeze or other reorganizations that could lead to it having more difficult

one final question, if i could, mr. chairman. this has to do with economic sanctions. many of us have talked about the imposition of broader sanctions by having more chinese companies brought into the chinese regime. there are hundreds of thousands of chinese companies still doing business with north korea, it's let me ask you about the sanctions that are in place. are they working? are they affecting the pace with which the country of north korea has been able to develop and test its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and to what sources of funding has the regime resorted to in order to get around some of these sanctions? >> thank you very much for that question. i think that what we see is, as we build this global kind of network to try to increase the pressure on the regime and prevent proliferation especially of illicit technology going to north korea, that there has been some effect. we are affecting their ability to get things that they need. it hasn't, unfortunately, slowed down their missile testing program. but we do see them needing to resort to, you kno