White House national security adviser John Bolton said the U.S. is physically capable of dismantling North Korean nuclear programs “within a year,” he said Sunday on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to visit Pyongyang on Friday to discuss the details of how North Korea will uphold its previous declaration of denuclearization that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed on during a June summit with President Donald Trump. (RELATED: US, North Korean Officials Meet At DMZ Amid Reports Kim Jong Un Is Advancing His Weapons Programs)
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Bolton said Pompeo “will be discussing this with the North Koreans in the near future about really how to dismantle all of their [weapons of mass destruction] and ballistic missile programs in a year.”
Bolton’s declaration of accomplishing summit goals in a year comes into direct contrast with Pompeo’s consistent refusal to give a specific time frame for making good on the summit deal.
“I am not going to put a timeline on it, whether that’s two months, six months, we are committed to moving forward in an expeditious moment to see if we can achieve what both leaders set out to do,” Pompeo told CNN in a phone interview Sunday.
Once North Korea discloses all of its chemical and biological nuclear programs and ballistic missile sites, the U.S. will be able to expeditiously move forward to dismantle such sites, Bolton said.
“If they have the strategic decision already made to do that and they’re cooperative we can move very quickly and it’s to North Korea’s advantage to see these programs dismantled very quickly because then the elimination of sanctions aid by South Korea and Japan and others can all begin to flow,” Bolton said.
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