“Americans who voted for Donald Trump believing he would be disinclined to start new wars should be puzzled by his decision to tap John Bolton as his third national security adviser,” says Christopher A. Preble, the vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. “The important thing is what the president says,” Bolton said on Fox News late Thursday after news broke of his selection, declining to repeat his past bellicose rhetoric about North Korea, Russia or Iran. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Charging ahead with the dramatic remaking of his White House, President Donald Trump said he would replace national security adviser H.R. National Security Adviser-designate John Bolton’s long record of tough talk could give President Trump some much-needed rhetorical back-up in difficult upcoming negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, some security policy watchers say, even as critics warn Mr. Bolton’s appointment could undermine the delicate, multilateral diplomacy needed to strike a deal with Pyongyang. Bolton said it was important for Trump to “make the point that he’s not there to waste time and that we expect real denuclearization, not talks about talks about denuclearization, but concretely how we’re going to eliminate their program as quickly as possible.”

Bolton also said the United States should not offer North Korea economic aid, or a peace treaty, adding, “they’re lucky to be having a meeting with the President of the United States.”

Bolton, a hardliner who has advocated regime change and military force against North Korea, said no one wanted to see military action, but it would be a mistake to leave the country with nuclear weapons. Having served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006 in the George W. Bush administration, and as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2001 to 2005, Mr. Bolton is no rookie to the kinds of internal fights that go on in an administration. Chief of staff John Kelly and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis had been pushing Trump to get rid of McMaster and had been escalating their campaign in recent weeks.
New US National Security Advisor John R. Bolton says that President Donald Trump should insist on Libya-styled denuclearization for North Korea.