North Korea on Saturday issued a relatively mild criticism of White House national security adviser John Bolton for calling on North Korea to show more evidence of its disarmament commitment before a possible third leaders’ summit.
North Korea’s criticism appears to be a continuation of its frustration at deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the United States. Earlier in the week, the North tested a new weapon and demanded that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo be removed from the nuclear negotiations. But the country is still avoiding directing harsh rhetoric toward the U.S. and directly criticizing President Donald Trump in an apparent effort to keep diplomacy alive.
On Saturday, state media cited First Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui as criticizing Bolton over his recent interview with Bloomberg News. In the interview, Bolton said the U.S. would need more evidence that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is ready to give up his nuclear weapons before Trump would meet with him for a third summit.
Choe described Bolton’s comments as having “no charm” and being “dim-sighted,” and said the United States has nothing to gain with such remarks. But she stopped short of asking Washington to remove Bolton from the nuclear talks.
Her criticism was much softer than the North’s past fiery rhetoric directed at the U.S. and South Korea in tense times. In 2003, North Korea’s state media called Bolton “human scum” after he described then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, as a “tyrannical dictator.”