SEOUL, April 20 (NNN-Yonhap) — North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, one of the country’s top nuclear negotiators with Washington, on Saturday condemned U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton for his comments in a recent interview, Pyongyang’s state media reported.
In an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday (local time), Bolton said that the United States needs to see a “real indication” that North Korea is ready to give up its nuclear weapons before any third summit between their leaders.
He was asked what the U.S. would need to see ahead of a third meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
“We never once expected Bolton to make reasonable comments, but he should at least grasp the context of the talks discussed between top officials in regards to the third summit since he is the White House’s top security adviser,” Choe said an interview with the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a Korean-language report monitored in Seoul.
Choe further warned that nothing good will come if Bolton continues to make such improper comments, the KCNA said.
Trump and Kim’s summits — the first in Singapore in June 2018 and the second in Vietnam in February this year — have so far yielded little progress in dismantling the North’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs despite their commitment to pursue the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
NNN-Yonhap
