Politics

John Bolton Barrels Over North Korea In First Interview Since Appointment [VIDEO]

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Nick Givas Media And Politics Reporter
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Newly-appointed national security adviser John Bolton got down to brass tacks Friday on Fox Business’ “Varney & Company,” and called North Korea liars while adding speaking plainly is still an American virtue.

“North Korea has a playbook of phrases they use depending on what their propaganda strategy is,” Bolton said. “I think that their history over decades is that they, like Iran like others, use negotiations to buy time to conceal their nuclear weapons and ballistic missile activities.”

“The meeting with President Trump when it comes, I think will be an opportunity to see whether that’s the same policy they’re pursuing as they have so many times in the past,” he continued. “They’ve repeatedly committed to give up nuclear weapons and they’ve repeatably lied about it.”

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Bolton also said speaking plainly and bluntly is an American virtue and thinks it can help advance the peace process to avoid beating around the bush.

“I think that in America plain speaking is still a virtue,” he said . “I think it helps to cut through the fog in some cases and find out whether there is something to talk about or not. And when you put it on the table I’ve often found with countries that we tend to see as our adversaries or having different interests, Russia and China, that you can get to the ground truth whether you’re going to reach agreement or not — much more quickly than sometimes in the more convoluted conversations with allies.”

“I think you use the technique you think is most appropriate to achieving American interests which is what the bottom line of foreign-policy should be,” Bolton concluded.

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