The United States national security advisor John Bolton said on Friday President Donald Trump was still open to more dialogues with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un despite reports of the rebuilding of Pyongyang’s nuclear missile launch site by South Korean news agency yesterday.
According to Reuters news reports, White House security advisor Bolton, who once argues for the tough approach to N Korea, said the US president still welcomes dialogues with Kim.
While stating that it was too early to make a determination over reports alleging Pyongyang’s activities, Bolton told Fox News: “The president’s obviously open to talking again. We’ll see when that might be scheduled or how it might work out.”
He added, “We’re going to study the situation carefully. As the president said, it would be very, very disappointing if they were taking this direction.”
A senior US state department official has on Thursday told reporters Washington was much keen to resume dialogues as soon as possible but, Pyongyang’s negotiating team needed to be provided with more latitude than what was given to them ahead of the Hanoi summit.
“Fundamentally, where we really need to see the progress, and we need to see it soon, is on meaningful and verifiable steps on denuclearization. That’s our goal and that’s how we see these negotiations picking up momentum.”
Washington’s 38 North and CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) think tanks reported on Thursday: “The rebuilding activities at Sohae demonstrate how quickly North Korea can easily render reversible any steps taken towards scrapping its Weapons of Mass Destruction program with little hesitation.”