John Bolton, in a rare interview since leaving the White House in September, used the occasion to blast the Trump administration on North Korea. Axios’ Jonathon Swan writes:
“In his sharpest criticism yet of his old workplace, John Bolton suggested the Trump administration is bluffing about stopping North Korea’s nuclear ambitions — and soon might need to admit publicly that its policy failed badly.
“Bolton told me in an interview that he does not think the administration “really means it” when President Trump and top officials vow to stop North Korea from having deliverable nuclear weapons — “or it would be pursuing a different course.”
Kim has intimated he will test a new weapon or rocket sometime around Christmas.
Bolton also criticized Trump for saying earlier that Kim’s short range nukes don’t bother him.
When the president says, ‘Well, I’m not worried about short-range missiles,’ he’s saying, ‘I’m not worried about the potential risk to American troops deployed in the region or our treaty allies, South Korea and Japan.'”
Trump also said after a June 2018 summit in Singapore with Kim that “there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.”
