Bolton undermines reports on N Korea nukes
White House national security adviser John Bolton has downplayed alleged efforts by North Korea to hide parts of its nuclear program amid negotiations with the United States.
“We’re going to try and proceed to implement what the two leaders agreed to in Singapore,” Bolton told CBS on Sunday, referring to US President Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month.
His comments came in response to reports by NBC News and The Washington Post, citing anonymous US officials, who said Pyongyang is manufacturing more fuel for nuclear weapons.
“We’re very well aware of North Korea’s patterns of behavior over decades of negotiating with the United States,” Bolton claimed. “There’s not any starry-eyed feeling among the group doing this.”
He further argued that reacting to specific reports would not do any good to the negotiations.
“Kim Jong Un was very emphatic several times in Singapore he was different from prior regimes,” Bolton said. “Now we’ll let their actions speak for themselves.”
While North Korea and the US agreed at the Singapore summit to “work toward” denuclearization, there is no specific deal, NBC underlined, insisting that Trump’s order to cancel US war games with South Korea in the region was “a major concession to Kim.”
