Top Security Aide Of Trump's Calls US-North Korea Summit A Success

A second high-stakes meeting to conclude a disarmament deal with Kim Jong Un from the north broke down on Thursday in Hanoi without any joint statement.

Top Security Aide Of Trump's Calls US-North Korea Summit A Success

 Washington:

US National Security Advisor John Bolton denied on Sunday that North Korea's nuclear summit with North Korea last week was a failure, although President Donald Trump is coming home empty-handed.

A second high-stakes meeting to conclude a disarmament deal with Kim Jong Un from the North broke down on Thursday in Hanoi, without any joint statement.

Bolton told CBS "Face the Nation" that Trump's failure to secure Pyongyang's pledges on the destruction of its nuclear capability should be considered "a success, defined as the president protecting and advancing US national interests" .

He added that the question was whether North Korea would accept what the president called "the big problem" - completely denuclearize - or something less, which was unacceptable to us.

"The president has remained firm in his eyes and has deepened his relationship with Kim Jong Un." I do not see that as a failure at all when US national interests are protected, "Bolton added.

The collapse of the summit follows the historic reunion of leaders in Singapore, which produced only a vague commitment by Kim to work "towards a complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula".

According to senior US officials, in the week leading up to the Hanoi summit, North Koreans had demanded the effective lifting of all economic sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in Pyongyang since March 2016.

'Seat of his pants'

In return, Pyongyang offered only to close part of the Yongbyon complex, a sprawling site covering several facilities - and it is believed that the north of the country has other uranium enrichment plants.

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, however, challenged the US account, saying Pyongyang had proposed dismantling all "Yongbyon area nuclear generation facilities" in exchange for partial relief from sanctions.

"Sometimes you have to walk and it was just one of those opportunities," Trump said on Thursday, unusually disappointing, adding that he "would rather do it right than do it fast".

The president added Friday that his relations with Kim were "very good", and a senior US official said the process was continuing, with "many more opportunities for dialogue."

However, prominent Democrats have refuted the evocation of Bolton's progress, including Adam Schiff, chairman of the House's Intelligence Committee, who described the Hanoi meeting as a "spectacular failure."

"The president has given up a lot by going to this summit, strengthening Kim Jong Un's prestige on the world stage, giving up these military exercises at the last summit and getting nothing for him," Schiff said. CBS.

"This is, I think, the result of a president who is not prepared for this type of negotiation, a staff that is not well prepared and who basically flies away."

Trump's remarks on the case of a tortured and comatose North American student in North Korea largely sparked criticism of the summit.

"Barbarian and unacceptable"

The president said he believed Kim's claim that he did not know what happened to Otto Warmbier, who died 22 days after he was returned to the United States in 2017.

Bolton said Trump had made it clear that Warmbier's death was "barbaric and unacceptable," though Schiff said the president's "obsequious comments" had aggravated the failure of the summit.

Bolton was on tour on Sunday morning political broadcasts after the United States and South Korea announced the end of large-scale annual military exercises.

The maneuvers are a constant target of North Korean fury - condemned by Pyongyang as provocative repetitions of the war.

Trump has repeatedly complained about the cost of exercises, and since the 2017 Singapore summit, the United States and Seoul have reduced or eliminated several joint exercises.

"The reason I do not want military exercises with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the United States, for which we are not reimbursed," Trump said on Twitter.

"It was my position long before I became president, so reducing tensions with North Korea is a good thing!"

               The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed. That was my position long before I became President. Also, reducing tensions with North Korea at this time is a good thing!

 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2019

 Opponents of dropping the exercises warn that this could affect the combat readiness of the combined US and South Korean forces and give the North a strategic advantage over the divided peninsula.