Bolton condemns Kim missile launches, but open to talks

Bloomberg

National Security Advisor John Bolton said the US wants to restart talks with North Korea even while calling the regime’s missile launches this month a violation of United Nations
resolutions.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo ahead of a trip to Japan by President Donald Trump, Bolton said the launches on May 4 and May 9 were of close-range and short-range ballistic missiles. Trump earlier dismissed the latest provocation as “smaller missiles.”
The tests were North Korea’s most significant military
operations since November 2017, when it fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that weapons experts said could hit all of the US. The launches cast new doubt on Trump’s effort to secure a disarmament deal with North Korea.
“UN Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from firing any ballistic missiles,” Bolton said. “In terms of violating UN Security Council resolutions, there’s no doubt about that.” He added that Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would talk about “making sure the integrity of the Security Council resolutions is maintained.”
Bolton said the US has had little contact with North Korea since Trump’s February summit with leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi collapsed without a deal. He added that the US’s special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Biegun, “can’t wait to talk to his North Korean counterpart, but they haven’t responded.”
Asked about Abe’s declaration that he would be ready to hold a summit with Kim without preconditions, Bolton said it “would be in North Korea’s interests to accommodate the prime minister.”
Such a meeting “could well be a substantial assistance” to resolving the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North, as well as the missile and nuclear problems, he said.
North Korea has heaped disdain on Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for their hard-line approach, saying they have used “gangster-like” tactics. The reclusive state however, has framed Trump in a positive light, saying there
is a “mysteriously wonderful” chemistry between him and Kim. Even though ballistic missile testing is banned by
resolutions pushed by Trump’s administration, the US has tamped down talk of discussing the violations with the Security Council, according to two Security Council diplomats who asked not to be identified.