Washington (CNN) Idaho's GOP Sen. Jim Risch said on Tuesday the US would not make a nuclear agreement with North Korea without a verification regime.
"We are going to have verification, or we're not going to have a deal," Risch said on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."
Following his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump called Risch during a GOP lunch on Tuesday.
Trump said in an ABC interview that he and Kim trusted each other, and sounded an optimistic note about relations with North Korea and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
Risch defended Trump's warm words about the North Korean leader and said Trump "is absolutely committed to get airtight verification on this." Further, Risch told Burnett that Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said they would submit a potential nuclear agreement to the Senate for ratification.
"We are not dummies up here," Risch said. "We are going to see that there is verification, if indeed we get to an agreement."
Risch backed Trump's approach throughout Tuesday's interview, calling the summit "absolutely historical," and he responded to concerns about North Korea previously not living up to its commitments by saying diplomacy had thus far guided the nations away from the saber rattling seen ahead of the summit discussions.
"I don't think you should take that precedent and say OK, we are now going to go down the road we were gonna go and head to a war with them and not talk to them and try to get them to mend their ways, which obviously the President of the United States did," Risch said.
