By Lee Min-hyung
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| U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton |
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United States is skeptical of reviving the stalled six-party dialogue on the nuclear disarmament of North Korea, as the approach failed to generate outcomes in the past, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton said Sunday (local time).
"I think it's not what our preference is," Bolton told Fox News.
The remark came in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent proposal for the resumption of the six-party talks to settle the North Korea nuclear issue. The suggestion was raised following his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last week.
Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul also showed skepticism toward Putin's proposal. He said last week the priority at the moment was to revive dialogue between North Korea and the United States, and realize another inter-Korean summit to move the denuclearization talks forward.
Bolton said Washington was not seeking to exclude other countries from the ongoing denuclearization talks with Pyongyang, but that Washington did not view the multilateral approach as a favorable option.
"I think Kim Jong-un, at least up until now, has wanted the one-on-one contact with the U.S., which is what he has gotten," Bolton said.
The top security official went on to say that Trump also wants to hold another summit with Kim.
"[Trump] feels pretty strongly about it," Bolton said. "He's said repeatedly he thinks he has a good relationship with Kim Jong-un and the six-party approach failed in the past."
The multilateral negotiations were started in 2003 involving six countries ― China, Japan, Russia, the U.S. and the two Koreas. But they were suspended in 2009, after the North withdrew from them.
Even if Trump has continuously underlined his "good" relationship with the North's young dictator, the ongoing denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang are showing no signs of progress.
The rare dialogue momentum between the two came to an abrupt halt in the wake of the failed second summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi. Contrary to expectations, the two leaders failed to come up with any deal in Hanoi.
At the meeting, the U.S. rejected the North's offer of a "step-by-step" approach to its nuclear disarmament ― sanctions relief in return for phased steps towards denuclearization.
But the U.S. has stuck to its "all-or-nothing" approach in its negotiations with the North.
Bolton said the U.S. would not be deceived again by similar patterns of behavior by Pyongyang.
"I think if you look at the past policies, the answer to that is no," Bolton said. The past policies that have tried a step-by-step approach have all failed. Kim or his father have gotten economic relief and then somehow have never gotten around to that commitment to denuclearize."
The hawkish security advisor also urged Russia and China to tighten sanctions on the North.
"I think both Russia and China could tighten up their enforcement of the sanctions," Bolton said. "I think they have been pretty good about it in recent months, but I think they could always tighten up."
The message comes at a time when Kim is seeking cooperation with the long-time allies to tackle the deadlock in nuclear negotiations with the U.S.
The latest in a series of such moves came Thursday when Putin and Kim held their first-ever summit in Vladivostok where both leaders agreed to continue working for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
