The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate panel overseeing North Korea policy chastised the State Department on Tuesday for avoiding a public hearing on the issue, ignoring requests for a Trump administration witness, and instead sending a top official — deputy special representative for the DPRK Alex Wong — to a friendly thank tank where he will not have to face questions from lawmakers.

The Senators, Republican Cory Gardner from Colorado and Democrat Ed Markey from Massachusetts, opened their remarks at an otherwise relaxed hearing on U.S.-North Korea relations with blunt words for the Trump administration and its North Korea team.

“Let me begin by noting my sincere disappointment by the administration’s decision to not provide a witness for today’s hearing, despite repeated requests,” said Gardner, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and international cybersecurity policy.

“This committee has the lead oversight role on the conduct of our nation’s foreign policy and the administration is obligated to testify in a public setting in order for us to effectively fulfill our constitutional duties as a coequal branch of government,” he said.

“Rest assured, I will continue raising this issue with our administration colleagues.”

Markey, the ranking member of the subcommittee, echoed that point.

“I am dismayed that the Trump administration has, yet again, failed to produce a single official to testify in open hearing on the North Korea challenge,” he said.

“The administration’s choice to snub this subcommittee while making a top official available to participate in a think tank event tomorrow shows open disdain for our oversight role as well as for the American people we represent.”

The Senators’ comments appeared to confirm reporting by NK News earlier this week that the State Department had planned to steer clear of Tuesday’s oversight hearing on North Korea policy, against the wishes of Senators — and instead send one of its top DPRK officials for a speech at the Hudson Institute think tank.

Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NK News earlier in the week that the administration was “stonewalling” Congress.

After months of diplomatic stalemate between Washington and Pyongyang, the Trump administration has faced criticism for a perception that it has moved the North Korea issue down on its list of priorities.

The top members of the negotiating team all seem to have been given new roles in the State Department in recent months, including Alex Wong, who multiple sources had told NK News was supposed to testify today.

Stephen Biegun, the special representative for North Korea, became the Deputy Secretary of State — the number-two position in the State Department — at the end of last year.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, he told the Senate that his promotion would “elevate” the DPRK issue in Washington going forward.

“I don’t see this as detracting from my focus on North Korea,” he said at the time. “I see this as us elevating further the priority on North Korea to the Deputy Secretary position.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, Senator Gardner, the Republican from Colorado, appeared to be skeptical of that idea.

“Who is now leading — who do you look to as leading the administration’s North Korea policy?” he asked the witnesses.

“I’m uncertain, sir,” replied Bruce Klingner, a former U.S. intelligence official and a senior research fellow on northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington. “I don’t know if a point of contact has been designated since Mr. Wong’s new position has been announced.”

Wong was nominated by President Trump to an ambassador-level posting at the UN earlier this month.

Tuesday’s hearing covered a wide range of subjects connected to the U.S.-DPRK relationship, from the North’s nuclear program to sanctions to the U.S. military presence on the Korean peninsula.

The Senators also asked about the coronavirus outbreak in both Koreas.

One witness, Sue Mi Terry, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank and a former U.S. intelligence official, said that the North’s healthcare system was considered a potential source of instability in the country when she was working in the intelligence community.

“It’s nonexistent,” she said. “If there are patients with coronavirus, I think this is a significant potential problem in North Korea.”

Ambassador Robert King, the former U.S. special envoy for North Korea human rights, was the third witness. The Trump administration has not appointed anyone to his former role.

On the ultimate diplomatic goal — denuclearization in North Korea — Gardner and Markey both seemed to agree that the administration’s diplomacy had not worked.

“It is time to go back to Plan A on North Korea: the successful policy of maximum pressure that was adopted early in the Trump administration, but since abandoned in an earnest effort of diplomatic engagement with Pyongyang,” said Gardner. “We need renewed focus.”

“President Trump must put pen to paper and codify that the United States will not tolerate any ballistic missile test by North Korea of any range,” said Markey. “The stakes could not be higher.”