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White House Natural Security Advisor John Bolton

On Dec. 4, White House National Security Advisor John Bolton said that because North Korea has “not lived up to the commitments so far,” US President Donald Trump “thinks another summit is likely to be productive.”

Bolton’s remarks are taken to reconfirm the Trump administration’s commitment to holding another summit with North Korea and to emphasize that the second summit must get more tangible results than the first.

Bolton made these remarks during the CEO Council, an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal in Washington, DC, after mentioning that Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had agreed to strive for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula during their first summit in Singapore in June. Bolton echoed Trump in saying that the second summit would be held in January or February.

When the interviewer pushed Bolton to explain the logic behind holding a second summit when North Korea was not taking steps to denuclearize, Bolton said, “They’re going to [. . .] look at the commitments that were made in Singapore and have a discussion about how they’re going to accomplish those commitments, and until that happens there’s not going to be any release of the economic sanctions.”

Whereas Bolton has generally been one of the most skeptical voices about North Korea in the US government, pointing out that North Korea has not kept its promises, he changed his tune to argue that a second summit is needed to find a way to keep those promises. This appears to reflect Trump’s staunch support for dialogue with North Korea.

“Look, we’re going to pursue this [dialogue],” Bolton said. “If the North Koreans follow through on the commitments they made in Singapore, President Trump will deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.”

“[Trump] opened a door for [the North Koreans]. Now they have to walk through it. That’s what we hope to make progress on at the next meeting,” Bolton said, calling on North Korea to take measures toward denuclearization.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]