Video: John Bolton on North Korea
At National Review Online, John Bolton talks about North Korea, where the Bush Administration went wrong, why we can expect pretty much complete continuity from Obama and Clinton, and how our diplomats should be preparing for reunification. Watch it here.
Longtime readers of this blog know that the interviewer errs in referring to the provocative op-ed by William Perry (and Dr. Ashton Carter, Perry’s former junior colleague) as the “NYT” (was the Washington Post) and written in the days leading up to Pyongyang’s “nuclear test” (was the seven-rocket salute on July 4, 2006). Amb. Bolton may have explained why expediting the unification of the Koreas is better than endless nuclear negotiations, and what, if any, leverage the US has in persuading China of that desired state.
Bolton could have gone a step further: there’s a lot we could do to promote chaos and instability in North Korea — chaos that would spill into China — if China continues to be unhelpful in forcing North Korea to accept a gradual-yet-steady disarmament and transformation.