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John Bolton at a Republican campaign event in 2015.
- President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, infuriated North Korea with a strange and threatening comment about denuclearization in April, and now he seems excluded from the talks.
- Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly said Bolton's presence at North Korea talks would be "counterproductive" and angrily confronted him.
- Experts now believe Bolton is trying to sabotage the talks.
President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser, John Bolton, infuriated North Korea with a strange and threatening comment about denuclearization in May, and now he seems excluded from the talks.
When Trump met with Kim Yong Chol in the White House, only Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended. Bolton, who has plenty to say about North Korea, did not.
The reason why likely goes back to the comment Bolton made infuriating Pyongyang. Bolton said in May the US was looking at a "Libya model" for denuclearizing North Korea.
Libya's leader died years after disarming in part due to a US intervention as he fought off a popular uprising within his country. Bolton's comment was widely understood to imply that Kim too would soon meet his end.
North Korea responded shortly after by blasting Bolton, saying it could not hide its anger towards him.
Now, Pompeo has told Trump that allowing Bolton to meet with North Korean officials would be "counterproductive," according to CNN.
"There has been considerable tension between them ever since" the two men clashed over Bolton's Libya comment, CNN quoted a source as saying.
Summit sabotage?
KCNA
Bolton has never expressed much hope for a summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un, and now a growing chorus of experts think he may have tried to sabotage the summit.
North Korea and Libya are very different places, with different weapons programs and systems. There's no real reason Bolton had to bring up Libya when talking about North Korea, unless he knew it would have the effect of angering Pyongyang .
Bolton, who has signaled that he does not trust Kim, is sensitive to perceptions that the US wasting time with unproductive diplomacy.
As it stands, it's still unclear whether North Korea will actually denuclearize as a result of talks with the Trump.