National Security Adviser John Bolton on Sunday stated that President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was a “success.”
Bolton said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that there’s “no expiration date” for the Trump administration’s push to rid North Korea of its nuclear arsenal. He acknowledged, however, that Pyongyang has not committed to abandoning its nuclear weapons.
“I think (Trump) remains optimistic that this is possible,” Bolton said. “Kim Jong Un himself said in our last meeting, you know we’re going to go through many stations … before we achieve this deal. The meeting in Hanoi was one such station. So the president is ready to keep talking.”
Trump last week ended his two-day summit with Kim abruptly without signing any type of agreement as the two sides had during the leaders’ first meeting last year.
Trump later said he had to “walk away” from the second summit after North Korea asked for all sanctions to be lifted, but North Korean officials disputed that account and said they only asked for relief from some sanctions.
Bolton on Sunday rejected labeling the summit a failure, arguing that it was better to leave with no deal than a bad deal. He also pushed back on the suggestion that Trump had helped legitimize Kim on the world stage.
“The President’s view is he gave nothing away,” Bolton said.
He also credited sanctions with bringing North Korea to the negotiating table and noted that those penalties will remain in place.
“It was the sanctions that brought the North Koreans to the table,” Bolton said. “It’s the sanctions they want relief from and relief they can get if they denuclearize.”
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