There aren’t really examples of nations with substantial nuclear arsenals giving them up as part of a broad negotiated settlement and it working out. North Korea’s denuclearization, then, is very much uncharted territory. The Trump Administration, however, insists on drawing parallels to Libya.
National Security Adviser John Bolton in particular is trying to draw this comparison, even though there are obvious, dramatic differences between the two situations. North Korea is also furious about the Trump Administration’s talk of Libya, and it’s not hard to see why.
Libya never had functional nuclear weapons, and gave up its equipment in 2003 in hopes of ending its international isolation and reforming its image. North Korea’s interest in diplomatic engagement is one commonality, but makes it a particularly poor example, as Libya never really enjoyed much of a reward.
To make matters worse, by 2011 Libya’s “return” to the international community boiled down to a NATO-imposed regime change. That fact is not lost on North Korea, and indeed they’ve warned time and again that their disarmament must not be like what happened to Libya.
There are real reasons to question whether the US is a good partner for a denuclearization deal, since Libya gave up its weapons only to be attacked by NATO in 7 years, and Iran reached a deal on their nuclear program only for the US to disavow the pact in just over two years.
Bolton’s link to this makes it even worse in North Korea’s eyes, as they know that Bolton has long advocated for US-imposed regime change in North Korea. The North has seen its nuclear arsenal as a check against a US attack, and a comparison that suggests the US is trying to sucker them into giving up the arms first, to make a future attack easier, definitely isn’t going to help that denuclearization cause.
Unless he’s really *that* stupid, they knew exactly what Bolton’s words would do. That’s what you get for letting the Israelis run the white house.
It has been reported that China urges Kim Jong-un to have his talk with Trump.
But it was not reported, afaik, that China has also told Kim what to say to or ask from Trump.
The Chinese want the Korean conundrum next-door settled. They and N. Korea know that the US must be involved in the process.
It is immensely stupid of Bolton to show our hand now.
Prez. Trump putting Bolton in place shows just how stupid the Prez. can be!
Well, give them credit for not offering the “Iraq solution”…agree to inspections, disarmed, leveled and decapitated. ..
What a fascinating bit of honesty. I expect it is true, why would you say it? We screwed up Libya on the cheap, compared to what Iraq or Afghanistan cost us.
Bolton knew he was throwing a monkey-wrench into peace initiatives in Korea.
Why else would he refer to the Libya model?
Bolton, like the U.S., is a bully.
Why do I have to read the foreign press, in this case the Dutch Volkskrant, to learn what our government demands that N. Korea must do on “denuclearization”?
Within six months N. Korea must ship a large fraction of its nuclear arsenal abroad preferably to Oak Ridge USA where it will be dismantled. NK must give up the Hwasong-15 ICBM.
In return our government will remove N. Korea from the list of “supporter of countries that support terrorist organizations”.