John Bolton: ‘China Has Said One Thing and Done Another on North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons for 25 Years’
by JOHN HAYWARD
BreitBart.com
16 Nov 2017
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton joined SiriusXM host Alex Marlow on Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily to discuss his latest op-ed, “America’s Decision on North Korea Hinges on Trump’s Asia Trip.”
Bolton said Trump’s talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan demonstrated “beyond doubt that the U.S.-Japan alliance generally, but specifically with respect to North Korea’s weapons, is rock solid.”
“It’s something that Abe has been concerned about his entire political career,” Bolton noted. “He’s made it clear, in a quiet Japanese politician kind of way, that he will support the use of force against North Korea if that becomes necessary.”
“South Korea is more complicated,” he continued. “The president there takes a much softer line on North Korea. It’s a mistake in my view. I think the president threaded the needle there. He gave a great speech to the South Korean National Assembly, I think it was very well received in South Korea.”
“He sent an unmistakable message to North Korea and China that when he says ‘denuclearization of North Korea,’ that’s what he means. He doesn’t mean more negotiations, he doesn’t mean freezing the program while we talk because it’s so close to the finish line. He means denuclearization. We all hope that it will be done peacefully, but the implicit next step, obviously, is that if it’s not done peacefully that we’ll do it militarily,” Bolton said of Trump’s speech.
Marlow asked Bolton why he was “skeptical of Seoul’s resolve,” as he indicated in his op-ed piece.
“Well, the Korean population is very divided on how to handle North Korea,” Bolton replied. “I mentioned President Moon is the advocate of a version of the so-called ‘Sunshine Policy’ that takes a soft line. But the leader of the opposition, just a week or so before the president’s visit, very concerned about North Korea’s belligerence, called for the United States to redeploy tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea. Even President Moon’s own defense minister said that was a subject we ought to have a discussion on.”
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