Trump summit with Kim Jong Un expected shortly after new year: Bolton
National security adviser John Bolton discusses the relationship between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
President Trump national security adviser John Bolton says he expects the president to hold a second summit with Kim Jong Un shortly after the new year because the North Korean leader hasn't lived up to commitments he made during their first meeting.
“[North Korea] have not lived up to the commitments so far, that’s why I think the president thinks another summit is likely to be productive,” he told Gerry Baker at the annual meeting of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council on Tuesday.
During the Singapore summit this past June, Trump and Kim signed an agreement acknowledging progress in their talks and North Korea’s commitment to work towards complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Regarding North Korean ally Russia, Bolton said Trump has made it very clear that Russia’s firing on and seizing Ukrainian naval vessels in the Kerch Strait, which is in international waters between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is unacceptable.
“This kind of behavior makes it difficult if not impossible to see progress with Russia on other fronts and that’s something that I think the president made clear in his conversation with European allies, as well,” he said.
Bolton also said he expects the Saudi Arabia will do everything it can to uncover who was responsible for the killing of Khashoggi. But the U.S. commitment to the kingdom remains solid.
“The [U.S.-Saudi] relationship is real and vital to American strategic interest and there’s no point in blinking at that,” he said.
Top presidential advisers have defended U.S.-Saudi relations amid concerns over death of Khashoggi in Turkey.
"The October murder of Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey has heightened the Capitol Hill caterwauling and media pile-on," Pompeo wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal in November. "But degrading U.S.-Saudi ties would be a grave mistake for the national security of the U.S. and its allies."
Catch the full interview with John Bolton on FOX Business' "WSJ At Large With Gerry Baker," starting at 9:30 p.m. ET Friday.