Bolton calls North Korea missile launches breach of U.N. resolutions

May 25, 2019

Tokyo--John Bolton, national security adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, on Saturday criticized North Korea's firing of short-range ballistic missiles earlier this month as a breach of U.N. Security Council resolutions against the country.

He is the first high-ranking Trump administration official to clearly call the missile launches a violation of the resolutions.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Bolton said there is no doubt that the missile launches went against the U.N. resolutions, adding that the North Korean act will likely be one of agenda items at a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump in the Japanese capital on Monday.

Referring to the firing of the missiles in an interview with a U.S. media outlet earlier this month, Trump said, "They're short-range, and I don't consider that a breach of trust at all."

On Abe's wish to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without conditions, Bolton noted that Trump held talks with Kim twice with no conditions set, in mid-June 2018 and late February this year.

A summit between Abe and Kim would likely contribute to the efforts to denuclearize North Korea and resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea decades ago, he said.

The door is open for talks with North Korea, Bolton said. But he added that there is no change in the stance of maintaining sanctions on the country unless Pyongyang decides to give up its nuclear program.

Bolton said that Pyongyang has not responded to Washington's calls for holding working-level talks since the second Trump-Kim summit, held in Hanoi, ended without success. Jiji Press