They want to require congressional approval before Trump could call for a nuclear or conventional attack.
President Donald Trump’s increasingly tense relationship with Pyongyang has rattled members of Congress to such a degree that three Democratic senators announced a bill on Wednesday that would prohibit Trump from striking North Korea ― with nuclear or conventional weapons ― without obtaining congressional approval first.
Sen. Chis Murphy (D-Conn.) tweeted a series of messages about the proposed legislation, which he is introducing with Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.).
″My bill … makes clear that any unauthorized preemptive strike on N Korea – nuclear or conventional – is illegal,” Murphy wrote.
The bill follows legislation reintroduced by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in January that would limit the president’s ability to launch a first nuclear strike without a declaration of war from Congress.
“Trump’s North Korea threats are real,” Murphy wrote. “Mistake by Trump could kill hundreds of thousands on Korean Peninsula.”
The war of words between Pyongyang and Washington has continued to heat up in recent months, ahead of Trump’s visit to South Korea in November.
Earlier this month, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Kim In Ryong, warned the U.N. General Assembly’s disarmament committee that a nuclear war “may break out at any moment.” While such bluster is relatively normal for the country, equally destructive rhetoric from the White House has begun to rattle those at home and abroad.
