President Trump’s national security adviser said Sunday that the demands put forth by North Korea at the Vietnam summit this week were “incommensurate,” forcing Trump to walk away.
John Bolton, who also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during former President George W. Bush’s administration, said North Korea was demanding the U.S. lift all the economic sanctions against them, in exchange or a partial de-nuclearization of the northern half of Korea.
“What North Korea has done consistently in the past is promised to denuclearize and then, by the way, not do it to get economic benefits which which provide their economy a lifeline, get them out of the trouble they’re in and allow them to go back to the nuclear program,” Bolton told Fox News’ Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “That kind of mistake is exactly what President Trump said he would not permit in his administration.”
North Korea’s foreign minister rejected Trump’s assertion that North Korea wanted all U.S. nuclear sanctions eliminated as part of a deal, claiming his country a “offered a realistic proposal” to the U.S. that included partial sanctions relief in exchange for the dismantling of various nuclear material production sites.
The U.S. most recently passed a wave of economic sanctions in August 2017 in an effort to create leverage before the first Singapore summit between the two leaders.
“What he has said from the beginning, that North Korea, if it makes a strategic decision to denuclearize, can have the prospect of a very, very bright economic future,” Bolton said. “The president held that door open for North Korea in Singapore. They didn’t walk through it. He held it open for them again in Hanoi, they didn’t walk through it.”
