Menendez hits Obama on North Korea, Cuba

Menendez hits Obama on North Korea, Cuba
By Eric Bradner, CNN
Updated 1859 GMT (0259 HKT) January 4, 2015

Foreign Relations Chair: "I knew nothing" about Cuba talks 05:50

Washington (CNN)Sen. Robert Menendez on Sunday called President Barack
Obama's latest round of sanctions on North Korea a good first step, but
said the United States should hit harder.

The New Jersey Democrat told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union"
that the Obama administration should add North Korea to its list of
state sponsors of terrorism after U.S. investigators pinned blame on the
country for hacking into Sony's computer system.

He also took issue with Obama calling the hack an act of "cybervandalism."

"Vandalism is when you break a window. Terrorism is when you destroy a
building. And what happened here is that North Korea landed a virtual
bomb on Sony's parking lot, and ultimately had real consequences to it
as a company and to many individuals who work there," Menendez said.

"So I think there has to be a real consequence to this," he said.
"Otherwise, you will see it happen again and again."

Menendez, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee and still the panel's top-ranking Democrat, was also sharply
critical of the Obama administration's deal to thaw the decades-old
economic and diplomatic freeze with Cuba.

He said it will be "difficult" for the Obama administration get an
ambassador to Cuba confirmed by the Senate -- complicating one of the
key components of the deal, as Obama seeks to convert its diplomatic
mission in Havana into an official embassy.

READ: Why the Cuba deal happened now

Menendez also complained that negotiations for the deal, which spanned
for more than a year, all took place without his knowledge.

"What it really is, is about the 10 million people in Cuba who got a bad
deal, because what we did here is, we exchanged one innocent American
for three convicted Cuban spies, including one that was convicted for
conspiracy to commit murder against U.S. citizens, who were murdered by
the Castro regime, and, secondly, we got nothing in terms of democracy
and human rights," Menendez said. "We got nothing about political freedoms."

Source: Menendez hits Obama on North Korea, Cuba - CNN.com -
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/04/politics/robert-menendez-hits-obama-on-north-korea-cuba/