Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton took to Twitter on Tuesday to underscore his disapproval of the president’s relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
With the on-and-off bickering between Trump and the North Korean dictator heating up again, Bolton condemned the administration’s decision to block a UN Security Council meeting on human rights abuses in the insular communist dictatorship.
“We should take the lead [against North Korea], not obstruct other nations,” Bolton wrote, citing “Kim’s repression of his people, terrorist activities” and nuclear weapons and missile development.
“The Trump administration has refused to support a move by members of the United Nations Security Council to hold a discussion Tuesday on North Korea’s rampant human rights abuses, effectively blocking the meeting for the second year in a row,” the New York Times reported on Monday.
“The American action appeared aimed at muting international criticism of Pyongyang’s human rights record in the hope of preserving a tenuous diplomatic opening between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.”
It’s difficult to gauge the degree of that hope, since Trump and Kim are once again swapping personal insults — on Monday Kim called Trump a “heedless and erratic old man” — like they did two years ago, when it was feared the two countries were headed for actual conflict.
“North Korean officials have been issuing vague threats ahead of the Dec. 31 deadline that Kim set for Trump to make concessions including the lifting of sanctions. Trump has shown no desire to capitulate to North Korea’s demands,” says Jonathan Swan on Axios.
