North Korea did Trump a favor by snubbing John Bolton

The Hill ^ | 05/21/2018 | BY TOM Z. COLLINA

[SeekAndFind]

It was pure fantasy to think that North Korea was going to turn over its nuclear arsenal within months of the planned June 12 Trump-Kim summit. Yet, apparently, National Security Adviser John Bolton has an active imagination.

So it’s a good thing that Pyongyang has rejected Bolton’s ridiculous Libya plan; Trump can now focus on realistic ways to get the denuclearization we all want.

Bolton has been aggressively touting his plan to apply the “Libya model” to North Korea. By this he means that, as Libya did in 2003, North Korea should turn over its nuclear program to the United States soon after the summit, and only then would Washington reward Pyongyang with economic and security benefits.

Nevermind that Libya had a minuscule nuclear program hardly comparable to North Korea, or that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was killed in 2011 after the United States and European allies attacked the country.

The lesson to North Korea was clear: If you don’t want to end up like Gaddafi, don’t give up your nukes unless you have another way to guarantee your security.

So it should have come as no great surprise when on Wednesday, North Korean First Vice-Minister Kim Kye Gwan issued a statement rejecting Bolton’s approach, and Bolton personally, outright.

He criticized the “so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment” as “absolutely absurd” and the notion of "abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards” as a “sinister move.” On Bolton, Kim said, “We do not hide our feeling of repugnance towards him.”

Kim also reiterated North Korea’s support for “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” and that such a step would require an “end to anti-DPRK hostile policy and nuclear threats and blackmail of the United States.” He warned against forcing Pyongyang into “unilateral nuclear abandonment.”

[DoodleDawg]

67 votes can be had on a no-nuke treaty with Norklandia.

I don't see where.

Depending on what the US has to give up, which would be very little

Which is the same as we would probably get. North Korea is not going to give up their nukes. They are not going to agree with anything close to what Bolton has been demanding.

[meadsjn]

Bolton is a neo-con, with a neo-con attitude. That attitude is what will screw up any negotiation. Big mistake letting him talk to foreign countries.