 |
|
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton appears on Fox News on Aug. 5 to discuss North Korea’s denuclearization timetable. (Fox News screenshot)
|
Claims Kim Jong-un made one-year promise to President Moon Jae-in at Apr. 27 summit
White House National Security Advisor John Bolton has claimed that the one-year timetable for North Korea’s denuclearization was what North Korean leader Kim Jong-un promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Rather than the US pressuring the North to accept a one-year timeframe, Bolton said, Kim had come up with that timeframe himself. During an appearance on Fox News Sunday on Aug. 5, Bolton said that the US’s priority is North Korea’s denuclearization. “Kim Jong-un promised South Korean President Moon Jae-in at Panmunjeom on April 27 that he would do it and that he would do it within a year,” Bolton said. When the host asked whether the door would be open for one year and then shut after that, Bolton said that wasn’t the case: “There’s been a lot of discussion about where the idea of finishing this in a year comes from. It comes from Kim Jong-un – that if they make a strategic decision to give up nuclear weapons, they can do it within a year.” “We are waiting to see evidence that in fact that strategic decision has been made,” Bolton added. Bolton brought up the one-year timeframe during an appearance on CBS on July 1 during which he said the US had the physical capability of dismantling a major portion of North Korea’s nuclear program within a year. Just one month later, he is claiming that this was not a unilateral demand by the US but a proposal that originated with Kim. While it appears that the US has taken a step back from its coercive attitude toward the North, it is still pressuring Kim to follow through with his promises. While Bolton aligned himself with skeptics in the US with his remark that “There’s nobody in [Trump’s] administration starry-eyed about the prospects of North Korea actually denuclearizing,” he also underlined US President Donald Trump’s negotiating skill: “The president is giving Kim Jong-un a master class [about[ how to hold a door open for somebody, and if the North Koreans can’t figure out how to walk through it, even the president’s fiercest critics will not be able to say it’s because he didn’t open it wide enough.” The Blue House declined to comment on Bolton’s reference to what was discussed during the inter-Korean summit on Apr. 27. When asked whether a one-year timeframe had come up during that summit, Blue House Spokesperson Kim Eui-kyum said, “I don’t have any information about that, and even if I did, it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment.” By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent, and Seong Yeon-cheol, staff reporter Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
