Pence: ‘Trump will stand firm until we achieve the complete denuclearization of North Korea’

01 MAR 19 12:16 ET

By Maegan Vazquez, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President Mike Pence said in a wide-ranging speech Friday that President Donald Trump and the United States will continue dialog with North Korea to pressure the country towards denuclearization, after a recent summit between the two countries was cut short due to disagreements in negotiations.

“Last night, Trump returned from a second historic summit with North Korea in Vietnam,’” Pence said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, after the US-North Korea summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, broke up earlier than expected without a deal. “The President said it was productive two days and discussions among teams will continue. As President Trump said as he departed, ‘Sometimes you have to walk.”

Pence continued, saying, “And I can assure you after decades of failure with North Korea, under President Trump’s new leadership America will not repeat the mistakes of the past. But for the sake of our security, the sake of the people of the Korean peninsula, President Trump will stand firm until we achieve the complete denuclearization of North Korea.”

Pence also praised the President’s strides toward denuclearization, remarking that “it’s remarkable to think that when I stood at this podium two years ago, North Korea was engaged in regular nuclear tests, launching missiles over Japan, threatening the United States and our allies.”

But faced with Trump’s pressure campaign on North Korea, Pence said that “the world has witnessed the results. No more nuclear tests. No more missiles being fired.”

Pence, in his speech, also slammed presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and other Democrats he said were embracing socialism, marking his first attack on Sanders since the Vermont senator entered the 2020 race. Pence framed the race as a “choice between freedom and socialism,” which is expected to be a theme for the Trump campaign in 2020.

“Under the guise of Medicare for All and a Green New Deal, Democrats are embracing the same tired economic theories that have impoverished nations and stifled the liberties of millions over the past century. That system is socialism. Remarkably, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination is an avowed socialist. But it’s not just him,” Pence told the crowd.

He continued, “Bernie’s been joined by a chorus of candidates and newly-elected officials who have papered over the failed policies of socialism with bumper sticker slogans and slick social media campaigns

What they’re actually offering is just more of the same — more taxes, more spending, more government, and less freedom.”

The Vice President also derided what he said were the tenants of socialism through the lens of the current state of Venezuela.

“We know where socialism leads. You want socialism? Just look at Venezuela,” Pence said. “Venezuela was once one of the richest and most vibrant democracies in the Western Hemisphere, but under (Nicolas) Maduro’s socialist rule, it has become one of the poorest and most despotic.”

Pence went on to further rail against the Maduro regime, saying, “the struggle in Venezuela is between dictatorship and democracy, the struggle in Venezuela is between socialism and freedom.”

“As I told world leaders in Colombia this week, Nicolas Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power, and Nicolas Maduro must go. The truth is, Venezuela needs what America has. Venezuela needs freedom,” Pence added.