National security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that when an “optimistic but realistic” President Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will be nonnegotiable.
“Denuclearization is absolutely at the core of it, and it means not just the nuclear weapons … we’ve got the ballistic missile issue is on the table, we’ve got to look at chemical and biological weapons,” Bolton said during a Sunday interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
Nat’l Security Adviser John Bolton says North Korean denuclearization is non-negotiable, but “it means not just the nuclear weapons… we’ve got ballistic missiles on the table, we’ve got to look at chemical and biological weapons. There are a range of things to discuss.” pic.twitter.com/d3iFF65Fdj
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) May 13, 2018
Bolton also said that Kim and other leaders before him have promised several times to give up its uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing capabilities, but have not delivered.
“So that is really whether Kim Jong Un will come through on this, and it’s the reason why the president is both optimistic but realistic at the same time,” Bolton said.
While he hopes to move as quickly as possible, Bolton cautioned that he doesn’t think “anybody believes” that Trump and Kim will agree to getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear program in just one meeting.
