{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://sablan.house.gov/veterans-congress-speak-out-against-invading-north-korea", "Veterans in Congress speak out against invading North Korea", "2017-11-08", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "MP", "Gregorio Sablan", "S001177", "sablan.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Pacific Daily News \u2014 Veterans in Congress are concerned about the possibility of a ground invasion of North Korea, which they said could kill millions of people. They have asked President Trump to tone down his rhetoric.\n\"It could kill millions of South Koreans and put troops and civilians in Guam and Japan at risk,\" they stated Monday.\nCalifornia Rep.\u00a0Ted Lieu, D-California, along with 15 fellow veterans from the House\u00a0and\u00a0Senate, issued the\u00a0\u00a0bipartisan joint statement.\u00a0\nCommonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Del.\u00a0Gregorio\u00a0Sablan\u00a0is one of the congressmen who joined in the statement.\nThe statement comes after a letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a report from the Congressional Research Service on the military action against North Korea.\u00a0\nNorth Korea has made a number of threats against Guam as tensions between Pyongyang\u00a0and the United States and its allies have increased in recent months.\u00a0\nTrump has previously threatened\u00a0North Korea to \"get their act together\" or face extraordinary trouble and has also said the country could face\u00a0\"fire and fury\".\u00a0\nThe letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staffs states that the only way to destroy North Korea's nuclear arsenal is through a ground invasion, according to the congressmen who issued the statement.\n\u201cThat is deeply disturbing and could result in hundreds of thousands, or even millions of deaths in just the first few days of fighting,\" they stated.\nThe congressmen said, as veterans, they have defended the nation and remain committed to the country's security.\n\"We\u00a0also understand\u00a0that entering into a protracted and massive ground war with North Korea would be disastrous for U.S. troops and our allies,\" they said.\nThe Joint Chiefs said they have no reason to believe North Korea would resist using its\u00a0stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, the congressmen stated.\nA nonpartisan report\u00a0by the Congressional Research Service indicates conflict on the peninsula could impact as many as 25 million people on either side of the border, including more than 100,000 U.S. citizens, the statement states.\n\"We must pursue every other option before even considering a massive ground invasion. The administration has also failed to articulate any plans to prevent the military conflict from expanding beyond the Korean Peninsula and to manage what happens after the conflict is over. We\u2019re still engaged in the longest war in U.S. history in Afghanistan with no end in sight,\" the statement reads.\n\"The president needs to stop making provocative statements that hinder diplomatic options and put American troops further at risk,\" they said.\u00a0\nThe Joint Chiefs\u2019 assessment and the CRS report demonstrate that every diplomatic and economic option must be exhausted before military options are considered, they said.\u00a0\n\"If President Trump does intend to pursue a military option against North Korea, he must come to Congress as required by our Constitution. The stakes are too high and the potential outcome too grave for President Trump to violate his constitutional duty to come to Congress to authorize and oversee use of force,\" they said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://sablan.house.gov/veterans-congress-speak-out-against-invading-north-korea"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8231773972511292, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}